25
Featured Events
2014Beyoncé and Jay-Z kick off their On The Run tour with a show in Miami, with the couple co-headlining. The tour is one of the most profitable ever on a per-show basis, averaging over $5 million per concert.
1993Nora Ephron's romantic comedy Sleepless In Seattle, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, opens in theaters. With songs from Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and Harry Connick, Jr., the movie spawns a hit soundtrack and renews interest in standards.More
1967The Beatles premiere the song "All You Need Is Love" to 400 million people on a worldwide TV program.
1963George Michael is born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley, London, England.
1945Carly Simon is born in the Bronx, New York City. Her dad is Richard L. Simon, co-founder of Simon & Schuster publishing.
25
In Music History
2020The Dixie Chicks change their name to "The Chicks" in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement ("Dixie" is associated with the American South during a time of slavery). Their name was a play on the Little Feat song "Dixie Chicken." The rebranding comes two weeks after another country trio, Lady Antebellum, changed their name to Lady A.
201650 Cent is arrested for using the word "motherf-----" during a concert performance in St. Kitts, where it's illegal to use foul language in public. He's granted bail for around $1,800 and is slapped with an unknown fine, though it's probably close to $400, the same price DMX paid for cursing in the Caribbean in 2003. Fiddy's rep blames the DJ, who didn't have a clean version of the offending track.
2012James Rosemond aka "Jimmy Henchman" is indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, having allegedly ordered a hit on a rival who allegedly assaulted his son. If that doesn't seem like music news, consider that Rosemond was a hip-hop mogul and CEO of Czar Entertainment, manager of such artists as Too Short and Salt-N-Pepa (for their song "Shoop"). Rosemond has also been implicated in the deadly East-West coast "rap war" feud that claimed the lives of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.
2009Sky Saxon (lead singer of The Seeds) dies at age 71 when an untreated infection leads to heart and renal failure.
2001New York City rock band The Strokes' release their debut single, "Hard To Explain." It peaks at #16 in the UK.
1995During Elastica's set at the Glastonbury Festival, concert-goer Antony Genn jumps on stage and dances naked for about a minute while the band plays on.
1994With grunge still going strong, Stone Temple Pilots debut at #1 in America with their second album Purple. It holds the top spot for three weeks, dethroned by The Lion King soundtrack.
1993Weezer sign with DGC Records.
1988Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak dies of a drug overdose at age 26.
1988Seventeen-year-old Debbie Gibson hits #1 in America with "Foolish Beat," making her the youngest artist to top the Hot 100 with a song written, performed and produced by herself. The mark stands until 2007 when Soulja Boy goes to #1 with "Crank That."
1987Songwriter Boudleaux Bryant dies of cancer at age 67 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He co-wrote many hit songs with his wife Felice Bryant, including The Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Bye Bye Love."
1975Frank Zappa's last album with The Mothers of Invention, One Size Fits All, is released.
1974Mario Calire (drummer for The Wallflowers) is born in Buffalo, New York.
1973Bobby Darin marries his second wife, legal secretary Andrea Yeager. They divorce just four months later, shortly before Darin's death.
1972Mike Kroeger (bassist for Nickelback) is born in Hanna, Alberta, Canada.
Michael Jackson Dies
2009Fifty-year-old Michael Jackson is found dead in the Los Angeles mansion he is renting. The shocking news spreads quickly through social media outlets, and Jackson is the subject of numerous tributes over the next few weeks.
Jackson is discovered unconscious and unresponsive in bed by his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, who attempts to resuscitate the singer to no avail. Paramedics swiftly arrive at the Holmby Hills mansion after receiving Murray's 911 call and try to revive Jackson enroute to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he is pronounced dead. The Internet cannot withstand the impact of Jackson's death, as websites slow down and collapse under the weight of millions of search requests pertaining to the King of Pop. Wikipedia reports nearly a million visits to Jackson's biography in just one hour. Both TMZ and the Los Angeles Times crash, and AOL Instant Messenger goes dark for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, 15% of Twitter posts, roughly 5,000 tweets per minute, reference Jackson. The question on everyone's mind is – what happened? The Los Angeles county coroner discovers high levels of antidepressant drugs in Jackson's system, including the anesthetic propofol, which triggered a fatal cardiac arrest. Law enforcement officials launch an investigation against Murray, who administered the drugs just before the singer's demise. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter in 2010. Two months after Jackson's death, the documentary Michael Jackson's This Is It debuts, along with compilation album of the same name. Jackson had been planning a series of comeback tours and was pushing himself hard, relying on drugs to ease anxiety and treat his chronic insomnia (he allegedly went a record 60 days without any real sleep). The film showcases his rehearsal sessions. It becomes the most successful concert film of all time and ushers in a successful year for the late singer with 35 million album sales worldwide and record-breaking download sales (one million in a single week). Three of his albums sell more than any new release and his first posthumous album, Michael, lands in the Top 10 around the world.
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