| 1954, Johnny Ace shot himself dead backstage at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas. The R&B singer was playing with a revolver during a break between sets, someone in the room said "Be careful with that thing and he said Its OK the guns not loaded, see and pointed it at himself with a smile on his face. |
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| 1954, Bing Crosby's White Christmas entered the Billboard Pop chart for the eleventh time. Bing's rendition has sold over 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles. It was the largest selling single in music history until it was surpassed by Elton John's Candle in the Wind 1997. |
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| 1964, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Miracles, Stevie Wonder and The Marvelettes all appeared at The Fox Theatre, Brooklyn, New York. |
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| 1964, The Beatles recorded six songs for the BBC radio program Saturday Club in London: Rock and Roll Music, I'm a Loser, Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby, I Feel Fine, Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey and She's a Woman. |
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1968, Led Zeppelin arrived in the United States for the very first time in preparation of their debut North American tour. The group were paid an average of $1,500 for each show.
| 1976, American MOR singer Johnny Mathis was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'When A Child Is Born', the singers only UK No.1 and the Christmas hit of 1976. |
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| 1978, John Lydon's new group Public Image Ltd played their first live gig at the Rainbow Theatre, London. |
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| 1981, Michael Jackson phoned Paul McCartney and suggested they write and record together, the first result being The Girl Is Mine. The song was a US No.2 & UK No.8 in 1982. |
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| 1982, David Bowie had a No.3 UK hit with a duet with Bing Crosby, 'Peace On Earth - Little Drummer Boy.' The single became one of Bowie's best selling in his career, with total estimated sales over 400,000 in the UK alone. The Christmas song was written in 1941, while the 'Peace on Earth' tune and lyrics, written by Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, were added to the song specially for Bowie and Crosby's recording. |
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| 1995, American singer, actor and TV host Dean Martin died. Had the 1956 UK & US No.1 single 'Memories Are Made Of This' plus over 15 other UK Top 40 singles including That's Amore, Everybody Loves Somebody, Mambo Italiano. In 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show. |
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