1965, Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" is released ... it turns out to be his biggest hit ever, climbing to number two on the U.S. pop chart...

1968, the album In-a-Gadda-da-Vida from Iron Butterfly debuts on the U.S. charts ... the title track, clocking in at a whopping 17 minutes, features one of the longest drum solos in rock history ... the psychedelic, proto-metal song experiences a slight title change before release: from "In The Garden of Eden" to "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" ... the switch was made to match vocalist/keyboardist Doug Ingle's slurred phrasing and because an Atco record exec thought it sounded and looked more Eastern, a trend spurred by the Beatles' and Rolling Stones' flirtations with Eastern spirituality...

1974, Joey Ramone slides out from behind the drum kit and steps up to the mic to assume vocal duties for The Ramones...

1977, Judas Priest begins its first U.S. tour in Oakland, CA, as the opening act for Led Zeppelin...

1980, Back In Black, the new album from AC/DC is released ... it is the band's first album with new singer Brian Johnson ... Johnson joined the band after the untimely, alcohol-driven death of singer Bon Scott, and the album is a Scott tribute of sorts ... released just five months after Scott's death the disc explodes up the charts ... by 1997 it has sold 16 million copies in the U.S. alone...

1986, the film Sid and Nancy premieres at the Limelight Club in London ... the film relates the mostly true biographical tale of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen ... the raw, dark film culminates in the stabbing death of Nancy, Sid's arrest on suspicion of murder, and his heroin OD shortly thereafter...

1987, Guns 'N Roses debut album, Appetite For Destruction, is released ... while it is known as a landmark album now, it won't start moving significant units or receiving much airplay until MTV puts the video for "Sweet Child o' Mine" into heavy rotation nearly a year later ... after the ballad shoots to the top of the charts, the original lead single from the album, "Welcome to the Jungle," is re-released and hits the Top 10 ... the Top 10 hit "Paradise City" soon follows, as do sold-out arena tours, classic rock star excess, and truckloads of intra-band conflict...

1992, Bruce Springsteen opens his first U.S. tour since 1988 in New Jersey (natch) at The Meadowlands entertainment complex ... he and the E-Street boys will play 11 sold-out shows in the 21,000-seat Brendan Byrne arena, with some of the shows going until one in the morning ... it's good to be the Boss...

1996, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden is arrested for assault and released the same day in North Carolina ... the band had just wrapped up their day as main-stage headliners on the Lollapalooza festival stop at Rockingham Dragway ... from his own mouth: "It wasn't even a fan and it wasn't even at our show. It was in the lobby of our hotel in North Carolina. These people heard that we were staying in the hotel so they're sneaking out to look and they had been drinking so they were a little bit verbally abusive. I told one of them to go away with a twist of the wrist and that was it, just once. It wouldn't have been a big deal had I not been who I am--a guy in a rock band." ... thanks for the clarification, Kim...

2003, Chino Moreno of The Deftones badly pulls his groin muscle during a particularly energetic set at the Hawthorne Racetrack in Chicago on the Summer Sanitarium tour ... after consulting a doctor, the band announces they will miss the Sanitarium stop in Minnesota and two club dates in South Dakota and Montana ... the hope is that a few days' rest will allow the singer to perform at the next Sanitarium stop in Denver later that week..

1939, "Cherokee" is recorded for the first time by Charlie Barnet and his orchestra ... the tune will be recorded by scores of jazz greats and often played at a breakneck pace to humble neophytes...

1953, a young sideburned truck driver--last name of Presley--drops in at the Memphis Recording Service studio, plunks down his four bucks, and records "My Happiness" on an acetate disc as a gift for his mother...

1954, Elvis is back in Sun Studios (formerly the Memphis Recording Service) to record the first commercially - available Elvis single, "That's Alright Mama" ... the song, with a hopped-up beat, is a cover of a tune originally cut by bluesman Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup ... that same week, Presley turns up at the grand opening of a Memphis drugstore where he performs on the back of a flatbed truck...

1964, The Rolling Stones cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" makes it to number 48 on the chart ... it is the first in their long line of hits...

1966, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker get together to form one of rock's most celebrated trios, Cream...

1966, 50-year-old crooner Frank Sinatra marries 20-year-old Mia Farrow...

1968, Steppenwolf releases the ultimate biker anthem "Born To Be Wild"...

1968, the Beatles' full-length animated film Yellow Submarine debuts at the Pavilion Theatre in London with John, Paul, and George in attendance...

1972, a bomb explodes near a Rolling Stones equipment truck in Montreal ... the bomb was placed under a ramp and blows the cones out of a lot of PA cabs ... nobody is hurt, it's never determined who placed the bomb, and the show goes on as planned...

1972, Boston mayor Kevin White helps get Mick Jagger and Keith Richards out of jail in Warwick, R.I., following their arrest for roughing up a photographer ... hizzoner wants to ensure the Stones make their gig at the Boston Garden...

1973, The Everly Brothers arrive at an ignominious career low when the sweet-harmonizing siblings' set at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, is stopped by the theme park's entertainment director who feels Don is doing a poor job ... brother Phil sees red, smashes his guitar, and stalks offstage ... Don performs the third set as a solo and announces that the Everly Brothers are history...

1973, singer and guitarist for the Byrds, Clarence White is run down and killed by a drunk driver while loading equipment after a gig in Palmdale, California...

1974, John Lennon is given two months to leave the United States by the INS, who have denied him an extension on his visa, supposedly because he pled guilty to a pot charge in England in 1968 ... it will be revealed later that he is under surveillance by the FBI...

1978, as Bob Dylan leaves England after completion of his U.K. tour, over 200,000 gather at Blackbush Airport to see him off...

1982, Moon Unit Zappa, still a young teenager, makes her debut with dad, Frank, recording "Valley Girl," which becomes FZ's highest-charting single at #32 and wins Grammy nominations for father and daughter alike...

1986, after 28 years of collaboration, Columbia Records drops Johnny Cash, who then signs with Mercury...

1988, a California appeals court puts the quash on the old "let's-blame-our-child's-suicide-on-a-rock-band" game when it upholds a lower court's decision dismissing a suit against Ozzy Osbourne and CBS ... the suit held Ozzy and CBS responsible for the death of a teen who committed suicide after listening to Osbourne's "Suicide Solution"...

1989, Venice, Italy, is overrun by 200,000 loonies who show up in town for a free Pink Floyd concert and annoy the locals with noise, littering, and drug use...

1991, former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler files suit against the band, claiming they peer-pressured him into heroin addiction, then ousted him from the band when he entered a rehab program ... eventually, Adler will accept an out-of-court settlement to the tune of 2.5 million bucks...

1995, a bear-bone flute is found in an archaeological dig in the Indrijca River Valley in Slovenia ... at an estimated 45,000 years old, it is the oldest musical instrument ever found...

1996, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin loses his gig with the Smashing Pumpkins after he ODs on smack with touring percussionist-keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin in a New York hotel room ... Melvoin dies and Chamberlin is told to take a hike ... he will not rejoin the band until 1999 ... Chamberlin has already been booted for a short time on this tour after having overdosed in Thailand and again in Portugal...

2000, the Aiken County, South Carolina, sheriff's office finally catches up with James Brown, who's been overseas at a gig ... utility worker Russell Eubanks has filed a complaint that Brown threatened him while brandishing a steak knife when Eubanks came to Brown's home to respond to a power-outage report ... after two hours of questioning, the sheriff's office reports that Brown was "very cooperative" and was not arrested ... police records will reveal that Brown apparently thought Eubanks was an intruder and that racial slurs were exchanged...

2002, Bob Seger wins the Port Huron to Mackinac Island Sailboat Race, his second sailing title in two years...

2004, at the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Linda Ronstadt inspires the ire of Bush supporters in the audience by lauding Michael Moore's new movie Fahrenheit 9/11 onstage ... the incensed audience members boo and some of them leave in a huff, tearing down Linda Ronstadt posters on their way out ... Aladdin president Bill Timmins responds by refusing to let Ronstadt return to her suite and having her escorted off the property ... Michael Moore calls Timmins' actions "simply stupid and un-American"...

1954, Elvis Presley officially ends his career as a truck driver when he signs his first record contract with Sun Records...

1955, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets becomes the first rock-and-roll record to hit #1 on the national pop charts...

1956, Johnny Cash appears for the first time on the Grand Ole Opry

1915, seminal blues bassist, songwriter, and producer Willie Dixon is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi ... during his six-decade career he will play on and produce records for all the baddest blues dudes including Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson II ... his songs, including "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Evil," become staples of the blues repertoire, and late in life he will successfully sue Led Zeppelin twice for copyright infringement...

1956, Elvis Presley appears on The Steve Allen Show wearing a tux loaned to him by the host ... he performs his torchy "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" backed by the smooth-singing Jordanaires and then tears into a rocking version of "Hound Dog" which he sings to a basset hound that's propped up on a pedestal...

1957, Ray Charles' eponymously-titled first Atlantic album is released...

1966, two Philippines army battalions in full combat regalia meet The Beatles when they touch down in Manila during their Asian tour ... the soldiers hustle the lads past 50,000 screaming fans before they're safely ensconced at a naval base ... the next day they play two shows to overflow crowds and blow off lunch with dictator Ferdinand Marcos's wife Imelda resulting in their security being withdrawn ... the lads are obliged to fight their way onto their plane and George Harrison ruefully reflects, "The only way I'd return to the Philippines would be to drop an atom bomb on it"...

1968, promoter Bill Graham opens The Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco ... The Jefferson Airplane top the bill ... the venue becomes a Mecca for psychedelic bands and their adoring, patchouli-scented fans...

1969, the naughtiest Rolling Stone, Brian Jones, is found dead in his swimming pool ... the coroner's ruling is "misadventure" -- his drowning is attributed to that classic killer combo, alcohol and barbiturates ... three days later the Stones put on a free concert before 250,000 in London's Hyde Park to ostensibly introduce their new guitarist Mick Taylor ... meanwhile at the Newport Jazz Festival rock acts including Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, and Jethro Tull appear for the first and last time...

1971, this week looms large in affairs of the heart where rockers are concerned ... in 1971 Jim Morrison is found in his Parisian bathtub dead of a heart attack ... Rolling Stone's cover story proclaims, "He's Hot, He's Sexy and He's Dead" ... Morrison is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, the final resting place of Chopin and Oscar Wilde ... his grave becomes a hot tourist destination second only to the Eiffel Tower ... in 1975, folk-rocker Tim Buckley (father of Jeff) dies of a drug-induced heart attack ... exactly four years later in 1979, much-admired Little Feat slide guitarist and founder Lowell George suffers the same fate ... in 1999 Elton John is fitted with a pacemaker after being found to have an irregular heartbeat ... that very same day, Morphine frontman Mark Sandman drops dead onstage from a heart attack during an Italian concert while in LA, portly Blues Traveler harp player-singer John Popper receives an angioplasty in response to complaints of chest pain...

1972, Willie Nelson throws the first of his annual Independence Day picnics in Dripping Springs, TX...

1973, the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar closes its Broadway run after 720 performances...

1974, Greg Allman ties the knot with pop diva Cher just four days after her divorce from Sonny Bono is final ... the new union lasts only nine days before the pair separates...

1978, Peter Frampton suffers a broken arm and cracked ribs in a Bahamian auto wreck...

1982, Ozzy Osbourne marries his manager Sharon Arden laying the groundwork for MTV's future entry into the sitcom market...

1983, following a 10-year estrangement, the Everly Brothers reunite...

1984, Epic sets a record by shipping two million copies of The Jacksons album Victory to record stores ... the release is the group's only album to feature all six Jackson brothers and is the last to feature Michael whose solo career is burning brightly...

1990, 2 Live Crew releases the single "Banned in the U.S.A." in response to bluenoses who have targeted the rap group's albums ... "Born in the U.S.A." composer Bruce Springsteen gives his blessings to the parody ... Vatican representatives announce their attempt to block Madonna's upcoming Rome concerts due to her inappropriate use of religious symbols including crucifixes ... they prevail and the shows are canceled...

1991, over 60 audience members are injured during a Guns N' Roses show in Maryland Heights, MO ... singer Axl Rose is charged with property damage and third-degree assault for jumping off the stage and attacking a videotaping fan ... a year later he surrenders to authorities...

1995, Courtney Love is charged with assault after she belts Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna at a Lollapalooza show in George, Washington ... the tempestuous singer is given a one-year suspended sentence and ordered to take anger-management classes...

1996, Neil Young's new album Broken Arrow gets its debut via the Internet...

1997, DJ Wolfman Jack drops dead of a heart attack in his driveway after giving his wife a goodbye hug ... born Robert Smith, the gravel-voiced radio personality endeared himself to millions of listeners across the U.S. by blasting a torrid mix of soul, blues, and R&B from a 250,000-watt Mexican station operating just over the Texas border ... Brooklyn born, many of his fans presumed Smith was black until he made a cameo appearance in American Graffiti playing himself...

1998, in a successful effort to prevent reporters from eavesdropping on their wedding ceremony, Barbra Streisand and James Brolin arrange to have the White Zombie album La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One blasted from a van parked outside their Malibu villa at an earsplitting volume...

2000, in a phenomenally belated ruling, a San Francisco court rules that the Rolling Stones should have given proper credit for the songs "Stop Breakin' Down" and "Love in Vain," both of which were written by Robert Johnson ... the Stones' former record label had presumed incorrectly that the songs were in the public domain ... nine people die and 24 are injured when the crowd surges toward the stage at Denmark's Roskilde Festival because the PA isn't getting enough sound to the back ... Pearl Jam is the band playing at the time of the incident...

2001, New Orleans R&B singer Ernie K-Doe dies ... he had scored a big hit in 1961 with the song "Mother-in-Law" ... ironically, he's laid to rest in a family plot right next to -- you guessed it -- his mother-in-law