Musician Birthdays: Vanessa Hudgens (actress/singer, famous for “High School The Musical”, born in 1980)

– In 1962: Bill Wyman made his live debut with The Rollin’ Stones at the Ricky Tick Club, Star and Garter Hotel in Windsor, England. The group were know as The Rollin’ Stones during this period.

– In 1963: The Beatles played a show for their Southern Area Fan Club at Wimbledon Palais, London. To prevent damage to the stage from fans the management of the Palais constructed a platform for The Beatles to perform on, surrounded by a steel cage.

– In 1967: Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones was rushed to St Georges hospital in London after collapsing. A doctor reported Jones was tired and suffering from over strain and was also recovering from having some teeth out.

– In 1968: Marvin Gaye scored his first US No.1 single when ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ started a five-week run at the top. It was Marvin’s 15th solo hit and also his first UK No.1 single in March 69.

– In 1969: The Jackson Five made their first network television appearance in the US when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

– In 1972: ‘Born To Boogie’ the Ringo Starr directed movie featuring T Rex premiered in London.

– In 1980: Yoko Ono called on fans to observe ten minutes of silence in memory of John Lennon. 30,000 gathered outside St George’s Hall in Liverpool, while nearly 100,000 attend a memorial in New York’s Central Park.

– In 1985: Whitney Houston scored her first UK No.1 single with ‘Saving All My Love For You’. The song had been a minor hit for Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. in 1978 and was also a US No.1 for Houston.

– In 1991: Michael Jackson started a four-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Dangerous’.

– In 1997: Garth Brooks was at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Sevens’ his fourth US No.1 album.

– In 1998: Billy Preston pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in a Los Angeles court and agreed to testify against six other defendants who allegedly participated in starting fires, staging thefts and rigging car crashes for which a total of 18 fraudulent insurance claims were filed. Preston received five years of probation and one year in jail to run concurrently with a sentence he was already serving for violating probation on a prior conviction for cocaine possession.

– In 2000: Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher recorded a cover version of Slade’s 1973 number one ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ for the Christmas Day edition of the BBC1 comedy show The Royle Family.

– In 2003: Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Changes’ a remake of a track first sung by Ozzy on the Black Sabbath album Volume IV in 1972. It was the first father and daughter chart topper since Frank & Nancy Sinatra in 1967.

– In 2003: Alicia Keys was at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘The Diary Of Alicia Keys’ the singers second US No.1.

– In 2004: The funeral took place in Arlington, Texas for Damageplan and Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, Eddie Van Halen, placed Darrell’s original black and yellow stripes guitar into the Kiss Kasket he was buried in. Several thousand fans and friends gathered at the Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, to mourn the guitarist’s death. Darrell was shot five times in the back of the head during a gig at the Alrosa Villa Club in Columbus on 8th Dec 04 by a mentally ill former US Marine. Damageplan’s drum technician, John Brooks, and tour manager, Chris Paluska, were both injured in the incident.