2014 - Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin gets a speeding ticket in her hometown of Wasilla. She blames her excessive speed (63mph in a 45) on Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55," which was playing on her radio. When Hagar gets word, he tweets Palin offering to cover the ticket.
2001 - Amy Winehouse dies in London of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.
2001 - Paul McCartney gets engaged to former model and activist Heather Mills. The marriage lasts six years (including a two-year separation) and produces a daughter - Beatrice Milly McCartney - and a large settlement for Mills.
2000 - Mike Diamond of Beastie Boys gets mangled in a bike accident while riding in New York City, forcing the group to cancel their planned Rhyme & Reason tour with Rage Against the Machine.
1990 - Production began on the film, "Falling From Grace." The film marked John Mellencamp's acting and directing debut.
1989 - Ringo Starr begins his first tour since The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, introducing his "All-Starr Band" of '70s stars in Dallas, Texas.
1983 - The Police's last album, Synchronicity, hits #1 in America.
1980 - Grateful Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux, 32, dies of head injuries sustained in a car accident two days earlier. He had been on the way home from his birthday party at the time of the crash.
1979 - Iran's new leader, the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, bans rock and roll as a corruptive influence on the people, a decision that eventually inspires both the graphic novel Perseopolis and the Clash song "Rock The Casbah."
1977 - Led Zeppelin's drummer John Bonham, along with their manager Peter Grant and two other band employees are arrested backstage during the Days On The Green festival in the Oakland Coliseum, charged with assaulting three members of promoter Bill Graham's staff. Graham files a lawsuit that is settled out of court.
1977 - Judas Priest opened for Led Zeppelin for the first time in Oakland, CA,
1977 - Foreigner releases "Cold As Ice."
1963 - Canadian high school student Neil Young and his band, the Squires, visit a Winnipeg studio to record their first single, a surf instrumental called "The Sultan."
1965 - Slash is born Saul Hudson in Hampstead, London, England.
1950 - Blair Thornton (guitarist for Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
1947 - David Essex is born David Albert Cook in London.