1952 : Ray Charles signs to Atlantic after leaving Swingtime Records; the label will take him in a harder R&B direction than the crooner-style pop and West Coast Blues he had been recording.
1956 : Jerry Lee Lewis, then all of nineteen years old, travels to Memphis to audition for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. However, Phillips is vacationing in Florida, so Jerry Lee records a few songs for him to hear when he returns.
1957 : A young Jimi Hendrix catches Elvis Presley's performance at Seattle's Sicks Stadium.
1967 : A young guitarist named Boz Scaggs joins The Steve Miller Band, the blues band led by his childhood friend, Steve Miller.
1967 : The Beatles meet up at Paul McCartney's house in London to decide what to do following the death of their manager, Brian Epstein. They decide to be their own managers, and McCartney takes the lead on most business decisions. With hefty responsibilities outside of music, things get tense and the group breaks up two years later.
1972 : The O'Jays' "Back Stabbers" is certified gold.
1976 : West Coast musical impresario Lou Adler and his right-hand man, Neil Silver, are kidnapped in Los Angeles by a couple who ransom them for $25,000. The couple are caught within the week, but an accomplice flees and is never caught.
1980 : Fleetwood Mac ends a 9-month tour at the Hollywood Bowl. Lindsey Buckingham announces that it will be the last Fleetwood Mac show for "a long time". He's right: the band doesn't play live again for over two years.
2000 : The last remaining original member of The Platters, Herb Reed, is awarded a court injunction against a group using the same name but containing no actual original members.
2010 : T.I. and his wife Tamika "Tiny" Cottle are arrested in on drug charges in Los Angeles. During a routine traffic stop, police smelled marijuna coming from the rapper's car. The vehicle was searched and the couple was taken to jail on drug charges. Both T.I. and Tiny were released after posting $10,000 bail.
2011 : While boarding a Southwest flight from Oakland heading to Burbank, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong is forced off the flight because he gave some lip to a flight attendant who asked him to pull up his sagging pants. Armstrong doesn't take kindly to the request, and eventually he and his traveling companion are booted from the flight. Armstrong quickly responds by taking to Twitter, writing, "Just got kicked off a southwest flight because my pants sagged too low!" The tweet is quickly retweeted by his followers, forcing Southwest to release a statement apologizing for the incident.
2012 : Geoff Tate, late of the band Queensryche, announces plans to get a "new Queensryche" together. Pledging their support are Rudy Sarzo (formerly of Quiet Riot), Bobby Blotzer (formerly Ratt), Glen Drover (formerly of Megadeth), Kelly Gray and Randy Gane (formerly of Myth). There's still some question as to whether they'll actually be able to call the band Queensryche, since Tate is still wrapped up in lawsuits with the other three members over his firing in the same year and the use of the name.