2002 – Jimmie Lee Robinson, a Chicago blues stalwart known for his pointed lyrics and storyteller’s sensibility is found dead in his car on Chicago’s southwest side. He is 71. He has a single gunshot wound to his head and his death is ruled a suicide.
1998 – Acclaimed cowboy singer and actor Roy Rogers, 86, dies in his sleep at his home in the desert community of Apple Valley, Calif. The “King of the Cowboys” had been ill with congestive heart failure for some time.
1998 – Indonesian pop star Iwan Fals gives a free concert in Jakarta. More than 5,000 economically devastated people break out in a riot and charge the stage, hurling bottles and sticks and shoes. Fals barely escapes the mob and flees with his band to a nearby hotel.
1991 – Van Halen’s “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s pop album chart.
1976 – The Damned give their performance debut at the 100 Club in London.
1971 – Trumpeter Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong dies. He had turned 71 two days earlier. He wins a Grammy in 1965 as Best Male Vocal Performance for “Hello Dolly,” a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1972 and is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as a forefather of rock music.
1965 – No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” The Rolling Stones. It is the Stones’ first No. 1 single in the U.S.
1964 – The Beatles’ first film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” premieres in London.
1937 – “Duke of Earl” Gene Chandler (Eugene Dixon) is born in Chicago. His biggest hit is “Duke of Earl,” which tops Billboard’s Hot 100 for three weeks in 1962.
1925 – Rock `n’ roll pioneer Bill Haley (William John Clifton Haley Jr.) is born in Highland Park, a section of Detroit. The biggest hit for Bill Haley & His Comets is the rock `n’ roll classic “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock,” a No. 1 song for eight weeks in 1955. He is posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
This Day in Music
1991 - Van Halen's "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's pop album chart.
