1962 : Elvis Presley was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Good Luck Charm’ his 11th UK No.1 single.

1963 : Elmore James US blues guitarist, singer, died of a heart attack aged 45. Wrote ‘Shake Your Money Maker’, covered by Fleetwood Mac in 1968. Known as “The King of the Slide Guitar”, James influenced Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Keith Richards.

1963 : The Beatles recorded the first of their very own BBC radio program, “Pop Go the Beatles”. The theme song for the program was a version of “Pop Goes the Weasel”. The Beatles’ guests for this first show were the Lorne Gibson Trio.

1964 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit – The Beatles’ “Love Me Do”

1965 : John Lennon’s second book of prose, A Spaniard In The Works, is published.

1966 : Captain Beefheart appeared at the Whisky a Go Go. West Hollywood, California. Supported by Buffalo Springfield and The Doors.

1966 : Elvis Presley begins filming his 20th film, Frankie And Johnny, in Hollywood.

1968 : The Rolling Stones released the single ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ in the UK, the track gave them their seventh UK No.1 hit. Keith Richards has stated that he and Jagger wrote the lyrics while staying at Richards’ country house, where they were awoken one morning by the sound of gardener Jack Dyer walking past the window. When Jagger asked what the noise was, Richards responded: “Oh, that’s Jack – that’s jumpin’ Jack.”

1969 : Bob Dylan’s album Nashville Skyline peaked at No.3 in the US chart. The singer’s ninth album, it also scored Dylan his fourth UK No.1. The album featured ‘Lay Lady Lay’, which became one of Dylan’s biggest pop hits, reaching No.7 in the US, his biggest single in three years.

1969 : BBC television aired the first ’33 & A Third Revolutions Per Monkee’, guests included Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Julie Driscoll.

1969 : The Beatles with Billy Preston started a five week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Get Back’, the group’s 17th US No.1. Credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”, it was the Beatles’ only single that credited another artist, ‘Get Back’ was also the Beatles’ first single release in true stereo in the US.

1969 : The Guess Who make their debut on American television, singing “These Eyes” and “Laughing” on ABC-TV’s American Bandstand.

1970 : Peter Green played his last gig with Fleetwood Mac when they appeared at the Bath Festival, Somerset, England.

1974 : American composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington, died of lung cancer and pneumonia aged 75. Worked with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday. Awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. In 2009 the United States Mint launched a new coin featuring Duke Ellington on the reverse side of the coin.

1974 : NBC-TV’s wildly successful variety show, The Dean Martin Show, signs off after nine years

1975 : Earth Wind and Fire went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Shining Star’, the group’s first and only US No.1.

1977 : Marc Bolan plays his last show with T. Rex. The concert takes place at Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden, with Bolan the only original member of the band at that point. The singer would die in an auto accident on September 16 that year.

1979 : The three remaining members of Genesis give the fans a thrill by manning the box office and selling their own tickets to the upcoming show at the Roxy in Los Angeles.

1980 : Genesis fans turning up at the Roxy Club box office in Los Angeles to buy tickets for a forthcoming gig were surprised to find the band members Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford selling the tickets themselves.

1982 : Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, Boz Scaggs, and Country Joe & the Fish play a benefit concert for Vietnam vets at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

1982 : An 11-minute Paul McCartney/Ringo Starr film is screened at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

1986 : The Monkees, minus Mike Nesmith, begin their 145-date “20th Anniversary World Tour” at the Concord Hotel in the Catskill Mountains. The group has risen in popularity thanks to MTV, which started airing old episodes of their TV show.

1991 : Founder member of The Byrds Gene Clark died of a heart attack aged 49. Wrote The Byrds hits ‘I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better’, and ‘Eight Miles High’, member of McGuinn, Clark and Hillman and solo.

1991 : Guns n’ Roses played the first show on their 192-date Use Your Illusion world Tour at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, Wisconsin.

1992 : Police in Montgomery were called when an impostor posing as Steve Miller left a hotel owing a $600 unpaid bill, he did however leave a $73 tip on a $8 drinks bill.

1999 : Queen front man Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991, was honoured on a new set of millennium stamps issued by the Royal Mail. Mercury, who featured on the 19p stamp, was a keen stamp collector, and his collection was bought by the Post Office in 1993. The stamp marked his contribution to the Live Aid charity concert in 1985, and caused controversy by featuring a small portion of Queen’s drummer, Roger Taylor, in the background – UK stamps by tradition only carry pictures of living persons who are members of the Royal Family.

2000 : A New York Judge told Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde that if she wanted her March arrest for protesting the sale of leather goods in a Gap store dismissed, she’d better keep her nose clean for the next six months.

2000 : Andrea and Sharon Corr from The Corrs both collapsed in the mid-day sun whilst shooting their new video in the Mojave Desert in California. The pair were treated in hospital for heat exhaustion and were back on the set within 24 hours.

2003 : Paul McCartney sits down for tea with Russian premier Vladimir Putin, then heads to Red Square for his very first performance behind the iron curtain, for an audience of 20,000.

2004 : An auction of Bruce Springsteen’s birth certificate on eBay is shut down by the Boss’ legal team.

2004 : Madonna kicked off the North American leg of her Re-invention World Tour by playing three sold out nights at The Los Angeles Forum. The tour became the top grossing of the year, with ticket sales of nearly $125 million, with over 900,000 fans attending the 60 date tour. As a follower of the Kabbalah, Madonna didn’t play any Friday night gigs as the teaching of the religion forbids it.

2007 : Amy Winehouse, Madonna and Arctic Monkeys were among the winners at this years Ivor Novello Awards. Winehouse won best contemporary song for her hit ‘Rehab’, while Madonna collected the international hit of the year for ‘Sorry.’ Sheffield-based band Arctic Monkeys collected the best album award for ‘Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not.’

2009 : Billy Joel was being sued by his former drummer for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties. Liberty Devitto, claimed that Joel hadn’t paid him proper royalties for 10 years of his work. Devitto was Joel’s drummer from 1975 until 2005, when he said he was abruptly thrown out of the band. He said: “People get fired, they get severance or insurance for a certain period of time. I didn’t even get a phone call. It was cold.”

2010 : Paul Gray, the bassist with US metal band Slipknot, was found dead in a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa. The body of the 38-year-old musician was found by an employee at the hotel in a suburb of the city. Police said foul play was not suspected, but an autopsy would be carried out. The nine members of Slipknot wore masks in public and referred to other bandmates by numbers; Gray was number two.