1956 : Patti Page’s “Allegheny Moon” enters the charts.

1962 : The Konrads (featuring Dave Jay later to become David Bowie), made their live debut when they played at Bromley Technical School in Kent, England.

1962 : Gary “U.S.” Bonds makes his US television debut, performing his hit “Quarter To Three” on ABC-TV’s American Bandstand.

1964 : The Rolling Stones paid $2,500 in return air fares from America back to the UK to honour a booking made a year earlier for $170 at Magdalen College Oxford. Local group, The Falling Leaves were the support act, and the Stones’ bass player, Bill Wyman, had to use one of the Oxford band’s amplifiers because of a malfunction with their equipment.

1965 : Bob Dylan recorded ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City, in the sessions for the forthcoming ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ album. Session musicians included Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, whose Hammond organ on ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ became one of rock’s most recognizable sounds.

1965 : Herman’s Hermits’ “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” is certified gold.

1965 : Recorded on this day, Bob Dylan – “Like A Rolling Stone”

1966 : John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (featuring guitarist Eric Clapton), appeared at The Marquee Club, London, England.

1966 : The Beatles made a surprise live appearance on the UK television program Top of the Pops, performing ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’. It became The Beatles’ last live musical television appearance, with the sole exception of the June 1967 worldwide transmission of ‘All You Need Is Love’. Read the full story

1967 : The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and Soft Machine both appeared at The Liverpool Love Festival in Liverpool, England.

1967 : The three day Monterey Pop Festival in California began. All the proceeds went to charity when all the artists agreed to perform for free, the ‘Summer of Love’ was born. The festival saw the first major US appearances by The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Also on the bill: The Byrds, Grateful Dead, Otis Redding, Simon & Garfunkel, The Steve Miller Band, Canned Heat, The Mamas And The Papas, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield and The Electric Flag. Tickets cost $3.50 – 6.50 (£2 – 3.80). John Phillips, of The Mamas and The Papas would later write, ‘San Francisco, (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)’ about the festival, which became a hit for Scott McKenzie.

1968 : The Elvis Presley/Nancy Sinatra movie Speedway premieres in Charlotte, North Carolina, where much of it was filmed.

1969 : Experimental avant-garde / free-jazz artist Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, releases Trout Mask Replica. While the album only manages to chart #21 in the UK and doesn’t chart at all in the US, it later becomes hailed as Captain Beefheart’s magnum opus masterpiece and receives raves from critics. “The Simpsons” cartoonist Matt Groening and film director David Lynch have called it their favorite album, along with other eclectic artists’ raves.

1970 : The organizers of the Woodstock music festival report that they have lost over $1.2 million on the event (money which they will later make up through movie and soundtrack rights).

1970 : Mungo Jerry were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘In The Summertime’. It went on to become the best selling UK single of 1970 spending seven weeks at No.1 and was a hit in 26 other countries. The UK release was a maxi-single playing at 33 rpm, (whereas singles generally played at 45 rpm).

1971 : Released on this day, Elvis Presley – “Love Letters From Elvis”

1973 : Suzi Quatro had her first UK No.1 single with the Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman song ‘Can The Can’. 10CC were at No.2 with ‘Rubber Bullets’ and Fleetwood Mac at No.3 with ‘Albatross.’

1975 : John Lennon sues US Attorneys General John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst for alleged harassment during his recent deportation investigation.

1976 : No longer just five, The Jacksons, all six sons and three daughters, get their own summer replacement variety show on CBS-TV.

1977 : Kenny Rogers was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Lucille’. It was the American Country music singer’s first of two UK No.1’s.

1978 : The movie adaptation of the hit off-Broadway play Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, opens in US theaters, becoming the smash hit of the year.

1979 : The Electric Light Orchestra started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Discovery’ their first No.1 LP, featuring the tracks ‘Shine A Little Love’, ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ and ‘The Diary Of Horace Wimp’.

1979 : Donna Summer’s LP Bad Girls hits #1.

1980 : The movie The Blues Brothers, adapted from John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s classic SNL skit, premieres in Chicago. A love letter of sorts to Sixties R&B and soul, it will help re-establish the careers of its musical co-stars, including James Brown, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin.

1982 : Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died following sustained cocaine and heroin addiction.

1982, Donny Vanzant of 38 Special was arrested on stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (a dry town) for drinking alcohol in a public place.

1983 : Released on this day, Ringo – “Old Wave” album

1984 : Frankie Goes To Hollywood had their second UK No.1 single with ‘Two Tribes.’ It stayed at No.1 for nine weeks making Frankie Goes To Hollywood the first band to have their first two singles go to the top of the UK chart. During this run the group’s previous single ‘Relax’ climbed back up the charts to No.2.

1987 : Cherry Garcia is born: Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) officially gives permission for Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream to name a new flavor after him.

1988 : Vince Neil of Motley Crue married mud wrestler Sharisse Rudell.

1989 : The first day of the UK three day Glastonbury Festival took place featuring Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Throwing Muses, Pixies, All About Eve, Hot House Flowers, The Waterboys, Suzanne Vega and Fairground Attraction. Tickets cost $48.

1989 : Cliff Richard performs in front of 72,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London to celebrate his 30th year in show business. Gerry and the Pacemakers show up to help honor Cliff, as do The Searchers.

1990 : The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black, re-released in the Netherlands as a single, climbs to the top of the charts 24 years after its initial release.

1993 : The USPS issues a series of commemorative stamps honoring early rock heroes Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Ritchie Valens, Clyde McPhatter, and Dinah Washington.

1994 : Kristen Pfaff, bass player with Hole was found dead in her bathtub due to a heroin overdose aged 26.

1994 : Oasis played at The Erotika Club, Paris in France, the bands first gig outside the UK.

1996 : Metallica went to No.1 on the UK album charts with their album ‘Load’.

1996 : Rage Against The Machine, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Fugees, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Lee Hooker, Beck, Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, De La Soul and Richie Havens all appeared at the two-day Tibetan Freedom Concert, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco: A sell-out crowd of over 100,000 made it the largest US benefit concert since Live Aid in 1985.

1999 : Phil Collins gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 : Screaming Lord Sutch was found dead after hanging himself. The singer turned politician was 58. He was the first long-haired pop star-boasting hair over 18 inches long and the self-styled lord (real name David Sutch), was Britain’s longest-serving political leader, standing in nearly 40 elections.

2000 : On the first night of his ‘Up in Smoke’ tour in Chula Vista, Snoop Dogg’s tour bus was stopped at the Temecula border checkpoint in San Diego after the border patrol smelled marijuana wafting from the tour bus. One member of the crew was arrested.

2001 : Four-year-old Daniel Karven-Veres drowned in Tommy Lee’s swimming pool while attending a birthday party for Lee’s 5-year-old son, Brandon. His parents, James Veres and Ursula Karven, sued Lee for negligence, claiming they should have been told that a swimming pool was involved, (their son could not swim). Lee was cleared by a jury in April 2003.

2002 : 46 years after his first hit, Elvis Presley started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘A Little Less Conversation’, (Elvis vs. JXL), giving Elvis a total of 18 UK No.1 singles, the most by any artist in chart history. This also set a new record for the longest span of No.1 hits with 44 years, 11 months and 9 days. His first UK No.1 single was ‘All Shook Up’ in 1957.

2002 : A remixed version of Elvis Presley’s 1968 single A Little Less Conversation hits #1 in the UK, released as part of a plan by his estate to regain the UK record for Number Ones from The Beatles.

2004 : The three surviving original members of the New York Dolls perform together for the first time since 1975 at the first of two shows at London Royal Festival Hall. The concerts are spearheaded by The Smiths frontman, Morrissey, who was once the president of the Dolls’ UK fan club. The band continues to record and perform in various incarnations after the reunion.

2007 : Rod Stewart married model girlfriend Penny Lancaster on the Italian Riviera just outside the resort of Portofino. The 62 year old singer was previously married to models Alana Hamilton and Rachel Hunter and has seven children in total.

2007 : Muse becomes the first band to sell out the rebuilt Wembley Stadium in London, when about 90,000 fans see them perform.