1930 : Ethel Merman becomes a star overnight with her rendition of “I Got Rhythm,” featured in the new Broadway hit Girl Crazy.

1955 : Buddy Holly opens for Bill Haley and his Comets at a show in Holly’s hometown of Lubbock, Texas. The gig gets the attention of a talent scout and leads to his first recordings.

1957 : The Everly Brothers had their first No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Wake Up Little Susie’, (a No.2 hit in the UK).

1957 : The Elvis Presley classic, ‘Jailhouse Rock’ was released. It became his ninth US number one single and stayed on the Billboard chart for nineteen weeks. The film clip from the movie where he sang the song is considered by many historians to be the first rock video.

1959 : Bobby Darin was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Mack The Knife’. From Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera, the song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1960.

1965 : The Rolling Stones, The Spencer Davis Group, Unit 4 Plus 2, The Checkmates, The Habit, The End and Charlie Dickins all appeared at The Odeon, Birmingham during a UK tour.

1966 : Grace Slick makes her first stage appearance with the band Jefferson Airplane at their Fillmore West gig in San Francisco.

1966 : Former R&B cover band Pink Floyd debut an entire set of psychedelic originals at tonight’s gig at All Saints Hall in London.

1967 : The second series of The Monkees TV show started on BBC TV in the UK. Plans for the shows to be screened in colour were dropped, so it was aired in black & white. Daydream Believers

1967 : Bobbie Gentry’s LP Ode To Billie Joe hits #1

1968 : The Jackson Five make their national TV debut on ‘ABC TV’s Hollywood Palace.

1969 : Police in New Jersey issued a warrant for the arrest of Frank Sinatra in relation to his connections with the Mafia.

1969 : The University of Michigan student newspaper publishes a satirical story called “McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light,” which adds to the rumors that Paul McCartney is dead.

1971 : John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear on ABC-TV’s The Dick Cavett Show to promote John’s new album Imagine, Yoko’s new book, and their upcoming art exhibition.

1971 : Music publishing firm, Arco Industries filed a $500,000 dollar lawsuit against Creedance Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, claiming that Fogerty’s song Travelin’ Band “contained substantial material copied from Little Richard’s Good Golly, Miss Molly”. The suit was eventually dropped.

1972 : Joe Cocker and six members of his touring band are arrested after a concert in Adelaide, Australia, when police allegedly discover marijuana and heroin in their hotel rooms. The group are not charged but instead given four hours to leave the country.

1972 : Michael Jackson went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Ben’ a song about a boy and his love for a pet rat, his first solo No.1. which was also a a No.7 hit in the UK.

1977 : At the personal request of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Linda Ronstadt sings the US national anthem at the beginning of their third World Series game against the New York Yankees.

1978 : The KISS solo LPs Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss all enter the charts

1979 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: Rise by Herb Alpert.

1988 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: Red Red Wine by UB40

1988 : Def Leppard became first act in chart history to sell seven million copies of two consecutive LPs, with ‘Pyromania’ (their third studio album released in 1983) and ‘Hysteria’, (which became the band’s best-selling album to date, selling over 20 million copies worldwide, and spawning six hit singles).

1989 : Motley Crue started a two-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Dr. Feelgood’.

1990 : Multi-Emmy and Grammy award-winning American composer, pianist and conductor, Leonard Bernstein died of pneumonia. Composed music for the 1957 musical ‘West Side Story’, and ‘On The Waterfront’. Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic aged 25 and wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals, and numerous other pieces.

1994 : Pulp Fiction opens, reviving classic ’60s songs like Misirlou, Son Of A Preacher Man and Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon.

1997 : Sir Paul McCartney’s symphonic poem “Standing Stone” gets its world debut by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. The piece earns the former Beatle six curtain calls. Critics, however, call it dull and forgettable.

1998 : B.B. King picks up a lifetime achievement award at the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London

2000 : The Beatles’s official autobiography Anthology hits #1 on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list.

2002 : The Libertines released their debut album, the record entered the UK charts at Number 35 and went on to top end of year critics polls in several music magazines.

2003 : Ozzy Osbourne seeks treatment for Parkinson’s Disease-like tremors and postpones a fall European tour, The veteran rock artist says in a statement, “I have been in Boston for the last three weeks, having medical tests for a tremor which has become markedly worse over the last two years.”

2004 : Eric Clapton was suspended from driving in France after being caught speeding at 134mph in his Porsche 911 Turbo near Merceuil. He was given a 750 euro (£515) fine and his UK license was confiscated. After paying his fine Clapton posed for photographs with French police and then left the scene in his Porsche – with his secretary behind the wheel.

2006 : Freddy Fender, the Tex-Mex singer died of complications from lung cancer at the age of 69. Known for standards as ‘Before the Next Teardrop Falls’ (US No.1 in 1975) and ‘Wasted Days and Wasted Nights’.

2007 : The Tom Petty documentary film, Running Down A Dream debuts at the New York Film Festival.

2008 : Illustrator and rock cartoonist Ray Lowry died. He contributed illustrations for NME, Punch, Private Eye and The Guardian and designed the artwork for The Clash album London Calling.

2009 : Paul McCartney was named Songwriter of The Year at the 29th Annual ASCAP Awards in London, England. The awards presentation honored songwriters and publishers of the most performed works in the US during 2008.