1948 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: Twelfth Street Rag by Pee Wee Hunt Orchestra

1958 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: It’s All In The Game by Tommy Edwards

1961 : Chubby Checker performs a medley of “The Twist” and “Let’s Twist Again” on TV’s Ed Sullivan Show, sparking chart revivals for both tunes (The Twist even returns to #1.)

1964 : Sandie Shaw had her first UK No.1 single with the Burt Bacharach song ‘(There’s) Always Some Thing There To Remind Me’.

1964 : The Who, then known as The High Numbers, receive a letter from EMI Records, asking them for original material after their recent audition for the company.

1965 : The Beatles’ Yesterday is the #1 single in the US, while The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction is #10.

1965 : The Kingston Trio appear on an episode of NBC-TV’s Convoy.

1966 : The Supremes became the first female group to have a No.1 album on the US char whith ‘The Supremes a Go Go’, knocking The Beatles ‘Revolver’, from the top of the charts.

1966 : Chain Reaction, which would later become Aerosmith, opens for The Yardbirds at Staples High in Westport, Connecticut.

1966 : The Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’ made its debut on the US singles chart. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the track was recorded over 6 weeks in four different Los Angeles studios, at a cost of over $16,000. The recording engineer would later say that the last take sounded exactly like the first, six months earlier. The record would reach No.1 on the US charts in December 1966.

1969 : American singer Tommy Edwards died after suffering a brain aneurysm in Henrico County, Virginia, at the age of 47. Had the 1958 US & UK No.1 single ‘It’s All In The Game’.

1969 : Paul McCartney publicly denied rumors that he was dead. The most recent of many “clues” of this Death Hoax was the fact that he was the only barefoot Beatle on the newly released ‘Abby Road’ LP cover. The story was actually started as a prank by Fred La Bour, a sports and arts writer for the student paper, The Michigan Daily at the University of Michigan.

1969 : Led Zeppelin II was released on Atlantic Records in the UK. The Jimmy Page-produced album which was recorded over six months between four European and three American tours, peaked at No.1 in both the UK and US, going on to sell over 12 million copies in the US alone, (and spending 138 weeks on the UK chart). The album is now recognized by writers and music critics as one of the greatest and most influential rock albums ever recorded.

1976 : The Damned release “New Rose,” the first ever British punk single.

1978 : Earth, Wind & Fire begins a 75-date sold-out U.S. tour in Louisville, Ky.

1985 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: Saving All My Love For You by Whitney Houston

1986 : Jane Dornacker was killed in a helicopter crash during a live traffic report for WNBC radio in New York. Listeners heard the terrified voice of Dornacker screaming “Hit the water, hit the water’ as the helicopter from which she and pilot Bill Pate were reporting, fell from the sky and crashed into the Hudson River. Dornacker had been a member of The Tubes and Leila And The Snakes.

1988 : Phil Collins started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Groovy Kind Of Love’, his 6th US No.1.

1988 : U2 scored their fourth UK No.1 album with the double set and film soundtrack ‘Rattle And Hum’, featuring their first UK No.1 single ‘Desire’.

1989 : English folk singer, songwriter, poet, and record producer Ewan MacColl died aged 74. He wrote ‘Dirty Old Town’ and ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, (became a No.1 hit for Roberta Flack in 1972). Acts including Planxty, The Dubliners, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash recorded his songs. He was the father of singer, songwriter Kirsty MacColl.

1990 : The band Mookie Blaylock, which would soon be known as Pearl Jam, makes their stage debut at The Off Ramp in Seattle. In the audience are members of Soundgarden and Seattle Mariners pitcher Randy Johnson.

1993 : Oasis signed a six-album deal with Creation Records for a £40,000 advance.

1993 : Annette Funicello receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on her 51st birthday.

1996 : It was announced that, “The Beatles were now bigger than The Beatles”. The statement was based on sales so far this year, having sold 6,000,000 albums from their back catalog and a combined total of 13,000,000 copies of ‘The Beatles Anthology 1’ and ‘The Beatles Anthology 2’. With the release of ‘The Beatles Anthology 3’ a week away, it was anticipated that total Beatles album sales for 1996 would exceed 20 million. A poll showed 41 percent of sales were to teenagers who were not born when The Beatles officially called it quits in 1970.

1997 : The big record companies run into trouble in Italy when that country’s regulators determine that BMG, EMI, PolyGram, Sony and Warner Music have formed a cartel to eliminate competition. They fine the companies the equivalent of $4.5 million.

1999 : The Temptations earn their first platinum record when their 56th album Phoenix Rising finally sells its millionth copy.

1999 : It was reported that Sinead O’Connor was attempting to buy the church where she was ordained into the Catholic sisterhood. The church was on the market for £70,000.

2000 : George Michael paid £1.45m for the Steinway piano on which John Lennon wrote ‘Imagine.’ George said, “I know that when my fingers touch the keys of that Steinway, I will feel truly blessed. And parting with my money has never been much of a problem, just ask my accountant.” The singer outbid Robbie Williams and The Oasis brothers.

2000 : Pearl Jam appeared at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, California, celebrating the tenth anniversary of their first live performance as a band.

2000 : R.E.M. returns to their hometown of Athens, Georgia, where they play 3 songs on the courthouse steps as part of a local festival called Land Aid, which is an effort to better the community.

2003 : Elliot Smith, US singer songwriter, committed suicide aged 34. One time member of Stranger Than Fiction, solo 1997 album ‘Either/Or’.

2005 : Waterloo by Abba was voted the best song in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. Viewers in 31 countries across Europe voted during a special show in Copenhagen to celebrate the annual event’s 50th birthday.

2008 : Guns N’ Roses release their first new material since 1999 when the title track of their new album Chinese Democracy is issued as a single. The band – with Axl Rose as the only original member – first performed the song in 2001.

2008 : A homeless man claimed a £2,000 reward by returning a waxwork head of ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney which had been left on a train. Anthony Silva found the item in a bin at Reading station after auctioneer Joby Carter left it under a seat at Maidenhead station. The homeless man thought it was a Halloween mask and had been using it as a pillow before realizing what it was. The wax model sold the following week for £5,500 at auction.

2012 : Country music legend Garth Brooks is inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The ceremony includes honorary performances by George Strait, Bob Seger, and James Taylor. Brooks is reportedly sentimental and teary-eyed for the occasion.