1984
Muldoon calls snap election
Prime Minister Robert Muldoon surprised many by announcing a ‘snap’ election to be held in exactly one month’s time.
In Music History
2020-BTS draw about 750,000 viewers (in 107 countries) to their Bang Bang Con livestream concert, earning an estimated $20 million in ticket sales, far more than what a traditional concert could earn. It proves that livestream shows, which have mostly relied on donations, can be immensely profitable as ticketed events.
2018-At the end of his set at the World Cup opening ceremonies in Moscow, a petulant Robbie Williams flips off the camera.More
2017-The annual Bridge School benefit concert is cancelled after Neil Young begs off. The concerts, benefiting the school that treated Young's son Ben and others with disabilities, started in 1986.
2017-The National Music Publishers Association gives Yoko Ono the Centennial Award for song of the century and adds her name to the credits of the award-winning song, "Imagine." John Lennon took the sole credit, but later admitted he got the idea from Yoko's book Grapefruit, where she wrote things like, "Imagine 1000 suns in the sky at the same time."
2012-Drake and Chris Brown are involved in a fight at a New York City nightclub, with Brown accusing Drake of throwing a bottle at him. They had beef over Rihanna, whom they both dated.
2009-Bob Bogle (lead guitarist, bassist for The Ventures) dies of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 75.
2007-Chris Tomlin's cover of "Indescribable" is used as the official wake-up call for NASA astronaut Patrick Forrester while on the Space Shuttle mission STS-117.
2006-Rufus Wainwright, son of folk singer Loudon Wainwright III, recreates the whole of Judy Garland's legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert at the famous institution in order to mark the show's 35th anniversary.
2005-Backstreet Boys stray from their traditional pop fare with their rock-leaning comeback album, Never Gone. It debuts at #3 in America, sells over 10 million copies worldwide...and is slayed by critics.
2003-Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers is awarded a Member of the British Empire medal by Queen Elizabeth in London.
2003-"Bring Me To Life," the debut single from Evanescence, hits #1 in the UK and stays for four weeks. The song peaks at #5 in America.
2002-Moby's "Extreme Ways" plays during the end credits of the action thriller The Bourne Identity. The 18 track goes on to close out every installment in the long-running franchise.
2002-Cher starts her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour. Planned for 59 dates, it ends up at 325, bringing in 260 million dollars. It's billed as her final tour, though she ends up returning to music years later.
1996-Mathew Fletcher, drummer for Heavenly, commits suicide at age 26 just before the release of the band's fourth and final album, Operation Heavenly.
1996-Beatles producer George Martin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1995-Irish blues rocker Rory Gallagher dies of a staphylococcal infection following a liver transplant at age 47.
1994-Noted film composer Henry Mancini dies of pancreatic cancer at age 70.
1989-Pete de Freitas (drummer for Echo And The Bunnymen) dies in a motorcycle accident en-route to Liverpool from London at age 27.
1989-Carole King gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1986-Patti LaBelle lands her first solo #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "On My Own," a duet with ex-Doobie Brother Michael McDonald. It holds the top spot for three weeks and also goes to #1 on the R&B chart.
1980-Billy Joel's Glass Houses is the #1 album in America for the first of six consecutive weeks.
1979-Little Feat announce their breakup; guitarist Lowell George dies of a heart attack just two weeks later.
1975-America's "Sister Golden Hair" hits #1 in the US. The song is produced by George Martin and contains a guitar riff borrowed from George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord."
1974-David Bowie's Diamond Dogs tour begins in Montreal. As part of the elaborate stage show, a giant diamond opens up to reveal Bowie.
1972-Actor Warren Beatty organizes his fifth benefit concert for doomed US Presidential candidate George McGovern at Madison Square Garden, featuring, among others, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter, Paul and Mary.
1971-Frank Sinatra announces his retirement from show business, only to return a year and a half later with the comeback album Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back.
1971-"Kiss the Rain" singer Billie Myers is born in Coventry, West Midlands, England.
1970-Eric Clapton's new band is introduced as "Derek and the Dominos" when they take the stage at the Lyceum in London. They tell the promoter they are "The Dynamics," but he convinces them to add the "Derek," which is a nickname for Clapton. His mangled name interpretation sticks.
1970-Blood, Sweat & Tears begins a tour of Romania, Poland, and Yugoslavia on behalf of the US State Department. Working as government ambassadors under the Nixon administration puts the band in bad standing with the protest movement they were part of when they played Woodstock.
1970-The Grateful Dead release their fourth album, Workingman's Dead. With more compact songs like "Uncle John's Band" and "Casey Jones," it reaches a wider audience than their previous albums.
1970-A billboard taking up an entire city block to promote Grand Funk Railroad goes up in New York City's Times Square. It costs Capitol Records about $100,000 but pays off when their Closer To Home album sells over 2 million copies and they sell out Shea Stadium the next summer.
1969-Blues singer Wynonie Harris, known for ribald tunes like "I Like My Baby's Pudding" (1950), dies of esophageal cancer at age 53.
1968-The Jeff Beck Group, with lead singer Rod Stewart, make their US concert debut, opening for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East in New York City. Stewart has stage fright, which is cured when he takes some swigs of rum from a bottle he shares with guitarist Ron Wood.
1967-At Olympic Sound Studios in London, The Beatles start working on "All You Need Is Love," written specifically for a global satellite broadcast. The simple, repetitive chorus makes it a great fit for the international audience.
1967-The Monkees record "Daydream Believer."
1966-Deeming its "butcher cover" in poor taste, Capitol Records recalls the new Beatles album, Yesterday and Today, which is scheduled for release the next day and has already been sent to stores.
1965-The Beatles log a productive session at Abbey Road studios, with Paul McCartney laying down vocals and acoustic guitar for "Yesterday" (a string section is overdubbed later), and the group completing the songs "I've Just Seen a Face" and "I'm Down."
1963-Chris DeGarmo (lead guitarist for Queensrÿche) is born in Wenatchee, Washington.
1961-Culture Club lead singer Boy George is born George Alan O'Dowd in Eltham, London, England. He starts wearing makeup and women's clothes in secondary school, a look he adapts with Culture Club to provide a striking visual presence that gets lots of attention on MTV. The band has a run of hits in the early '80s that includes "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?," "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" and "Karma Chameleon."
1961-After a performance at the Majestic Theatre in Newcastle, England, Gene Vincent is mobbed by admirers who accidentally push him down a flight of stairs, where he is knocked out.
1961-Elvis Presley's 7th movie, Wild In The Country, premieres in his hometown of Memphis.
1958-Nick Van Eede (of Cutting Crew) is born in Cuckfield, West Sussex, England.
1957-Ava Gardner divorces Frank Sinatra.
1953-Elvis Presley graduates from Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee.
1949-Jim Lea (multi-instrumentalist of Slade) is born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England.
1949-Yes drummer Alan White is born in Ferryhill, County Durham, England.
1947-Barry Melton (original lead guitarist for Country Joe & The Fish, Dinosaurs) is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1945-Rod Argent (keyboardist for The Zombies, founder of Argent) is born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England.
1936-Renaldo "Obie" Benson (bass vocalist of The Four Tops) is born in Detroit, Michigan.
1931-Sax player Junior Walker (of Junior Walker & the All-Stars) is born in Blytheville, Arkansas.
1909-Burl Ives is born in Jasper County, Illinois.
1905-Jazz banjoist Nappy Lamare is born Joseph Hilton Lamare in New Orleans, Louisian
Featured Events
2008-Pearl Jam and My Morning Jacket bond, a tardy Kanye West riles the crowd and calls organizers "squid brains," and MGMT dance like hippies at Bonnaroo 2008.More
2002-Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
B.I.G. Tribute "I'll Be Missing You" Hits #1
1997-Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You," a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G., hits #1 in America, where it stays for 11 weeks, dominating the summer of 1997.More
1995-Diane Sawyer conducts a live interview with Michael Jackson and his wife Lisa Marie Presley on the ABC news program Primetime Live. Topics include the validity of their marriage, Jackson's surgeries, and if he's a Scientologist.More
1990-Four days after being arrested for performing obscene songs at a Florida nightclub, the rap group 2 Live Crew performs at the Ozone Club outside of Atlanta. Authorities had warned the group that they would be arrested if they performed their dirty songs, so the rappers encourage the crowd to sing the obscene lyrics for them, resulting in about 500 people singing lines like "that's the way we like to f--k" as police officers look on. No arrests are made, and the group gets even more publicity and a bump in sales for the album they released a year earlier.
ELP Have A Mean Armadillo On Cover Of Second Album Tarkus
1971-Emerson, Lake & Palmer release their second album, Tarkus. The creature on the cover is a weaponized armadillo.More
1966-Workers at a London railway station notice a large package wiggling, so they open it to discover 12-year-old Carol Dryden, a Beatles fan trying to mail herself to the group.
1961-Patsy Cline gets in a nasty car accident in Nashville, when she is thrown through the windshield. She is hospitalized for about a month, during which time she is visited by the woman who will become her protégé: Loretta Lynn.
Key Historical Events
1946- Nat King Cole recorded "The Christmas Song" for the first time, a classic that remains a holiday staple
1953- Elvis Presley graduated from L.C. Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee, marking the early life milestone of the future King of Rock and Roll
1961- Patsy Cline was hospitalized after a serious car accident; her single "I Fall to Pieces" eventually topped the Billboard country chart during her recovery
1964- Ringo Starr rejoined the Beatles in Melbourne, Australia, after recovering from tonsillitis
1965- Paul McCartney recorded the song "Yesterday", which would become one of the most covered songs in music history
1967- The Monkees recorded "Daydream Believer", and the Beatles began recording "All You Need Is Love", both becoming international hits
1969- Mick Taylor was introduced as the new guitarist for The Rolling Stones, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono appeared on David Frost’s British TV show
1971- Emerson, Lake & Palmer released their second studio album Tarkus, topping charts in the UK and Italy
1975- The band America scored their second US Billboard Hot 100 number one with "Sister Golden Hair"
1980- Billy Joel’s album Glass Houses began a six-week run atop the Billboard 200, and Peter Gabriel topped the UK Albums chart with his third studio album
1986- Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald’s duet "On My Own" started a three-week stint at number one in the US
1997- Sean “Diddy” Combs and Faith Evans’ "I’ll Be Missing You" began an 11-week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G.
2019- Columbia Records released Bruce Springsteen’s 19th studio album Western Stars
Notable Birthdays
1971- Billie Myers, known for her 1997 hit "Kiss the Rain", was born in Coventry, England
1980: Mark Pellizzer, founding member of Magic!, was born in Toronto, Ontario
1984- Siobhan Donaghy, founding member of the Sugababes, was born in London
1991- Jessica “Jesy” Nelson, member of Little Mix, was born in London
Other Highlights
1970- Grand Funk Railroad spent $100,000 on a Times Square billboard to promote Closer to Home, and Derek and the Dominoes made their live debut in London
1979- The No Nukes concert at the Hollywood Bowl featured Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and Stephen Stills
1980- Frank Sinatra’s "Theme From New York, New York" reached #32 on the charts
1987- Madonna began her Who’s That Girl World Tour in Osaka, Japan, which became the highest-grossing tour at the time
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