1941 George Bellamy (rhythm guitarist for The Tornados) is born in Sunderland, England.
1940 Soul singer Fred Cash (of The Impressions) is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1935 Bandleader Ozzie Nelson marries his lead vocalist, Harriet Hilliard.
1934 Baritone singer Doc Green (of The Drifters) is born in Harlem, New York.
1990Eddie Vedder flies from his home in San Diego to Seattle, where he meets his Pearl Jam bandmates for the first time and starts a week of recording that becomes the bulk of their debut album, Ten. Vedder was chosen based on vocals he added to a three-song instrumental demo the band made.
Read more2018 Taylor Swift offers her political views for the first time, endorsing two Tennessee Democrats and urging her 112 million Instagram followers to vote. Vote.org reports a spike in voter registrations. Swift's pick for the Senate, Phil Bredesen, loses to incumbent Marsha Blackburn. Jim Cooper, whom Swift endorsed for the House of Representatives, retains his seat.
2004 Ray Charles, who died in June, scores his first Platinum album when Genius Loves Company, released in September, sells over a million copies.
1990 The Go-Go's pose for the first "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" poster for PETA.More
1988 Def Leppard's ballad "Love Bites," where we learn that love not only bites and bleeds but also lives, dies, begs and pleads, hits #1 on the Hot 100. Remarkably, it's their only #1 on that tally ("Pour Some Sugar On Me" stalled at #2).
1985 Bruno Mars is born Peter Hernandez in Honolulu, Hawaii. His dad calls him Bruno because as a toddler he's chunky like the wrestler Bruno Sammartino. He becomes one of the most popular artists of the streaming era in the 2010s with a run of hits that includes "Grenade," Locked Out of Heaven and "Uptown Funk."
1983 Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish is released. Tom Waits appears in the film as the bubblegum-chomping owner of Benny's Billiards. His character exists on the periphery of the main plot line, but he is given an extended, poetic monologue about life, time, and aging.
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