1964 – The Beatles made their debut on TV show ‘Top Of The Pops’ performing ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ and ‘You Can’t Do That.’
1966 – During a UK tour, Roy Orbison fell off a motorbike while scrambling at Hawkstone Park, Birmingham fracturing his foot. He played the remaining dates sat on a stool and walking on crutches.
1972 – The film of ‘The Concert For Bangladesh’ featuring George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton premiered in New York. The event was the first benefit concert of this magnitude in world history. The concert raised $243,418.51 for Bangladesh relief, which was administered by UNICEF. Sales of the album and DVD continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF.
1975 – The tartan teen sensations Bay City Rollers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Bye Bye Baby’, the group’s first of two UK No.1’s.
1980 – The Police became the first Western pop group to play in Bombay, India for over ten years when they played a one off gig in the city.
1984 – Strawberry Fields, an area in Central Park bought by Yoko Ono in memory of her late husband was opened.
1985 – Radio stations in South Africa banned all of Stevie Wonder’s records after he dedicated the Oscar he had won the night before at The Academy Awards to Nelson Mandela.
1995 – British singer Alan Barton of died aged 41 from injuries incurred when Smokie’s tour bus crashed during a hailstorm in Cologne, Germany. He replaced Chris Norman in Smokie in 1986, recording six albums with them.
2002 – The seven year mystery of missing Manic Street Preacher’s guitarist Richey Edwards took a grisly twist when human feet were found near where he vanished in 1995.
2004 –Ozzy Osbourne was named the nation’s favourite ambassador to welcome aliens to planet earth. The 55 year old singer came top of a poll as the face people want to represent them to alien life. The poll of internet users was carried out following the discovery of signs of water on Mars. Ozzy won 26 per cent of the vote.
2004 – A new book claimed that Elvis Presley’s ancestors came from a small village called Lonmay in the North East of Scotland. Author Allan Morrison said he’d found evidence that Elvis’s great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was married in the village 300 years ago.
2019 – A school book Sir Paul McCartney used as a teenager sold for £46,800 – nearly 10 times its estimate. The exercise book which features a doodle of a man smoking and a teacher’s critical comments sold at an auction of Beatle’s memorabilia in Merseyside. He had used the book at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, where he was taught English literature by Alan “Dusty” Durband.
