TODAY IN HISTORY - December 11th
1940 - Born this day, David Gates, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, musician, keyboardist, guitarist, bass, singer, Bread, 1970 US No.1 and UK No.5 single Make It With You. Solo, Goodbye Girl.
1954 - Born on this day, Jermaine Jackson, The Jackson Five, (1970 US No.1 & UK No.2 single 'I Want You Back',) The Jackson's, (1977 UK No.1 single 'Show You The Way To Go'), solo, (1985 UK No.6 single 'Do What You Do').
1957 - Rock and roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis secretly married his third wife, 13-year-old Myra Gail Brown, who was also his third cousin, in Hernando, Tennessee, while still married to his first wife Jane Mitcham. Myra's parents were not told of their coupling until the story was broken by the press the following year. Lewis neglected to divorce his wife Jane Mitcham until April 1958.
1958 - Born this day, Nikki Sixx [Frank Ferranno], in San Jose, California, musician, bassist, Motley Crue, 1988 UK No.23 single You're All I Need and 1989 US No.1 album Dr Feelgood. Albums - Too Fast for Love and Theatre of Pain.
1963 - Frank Sinatra Jr. was released in Los Angeles after his father paid a $240,000 ransom.
1964 - Died this day, Sam Cooke [Samuel Cook], soul and R&B singer, he was shot and clubbed to death by a motel manageress, Bertha Lee Franklin, after breaking into her office looking for a woman who escaped from his motel room that he had forcefully brought there. He was born on 22 January 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, US. Some of his songs include You Send Me and Bring It On Home to Me. He was a member of The Soul Stirrers, and is also a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee. He was 33.
1968 - Liverpool folk group The Scaffold were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Lily The Pink', this year's Christmas No.1. 'Lily the Pink' was a new version of an older folk song entitled 'The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham', and a similar version was the unofficial regimental song of the Royal Tank Corps, at the end of World War II.
1971 - UK comedian Benny Hill, started a four week run at No.1 in the UK with Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West). It gave Hill his only No.1 and the Christmas No.1 single of 1971.
1972 - James Brown was arrested after show in Tennessee for trying to incite a riot. Brown threatened to sue the city for $1m, the charges were later dropped.
1972 - Genesis played their first gig in the US at Brandeis University near Boston, Massachusetts.
Genesis - Phil Collins, vocals and drums. Mike Rutherford guitar. Tony Banks keyboards. Peter Gabriel vocals. Steve Hackett guitar, formed as The Garden Wall in Surrey, England, in 1966. UK music impresario Jonathan King suggested the name Genesis. The band had the 1986 US No.1 single Invisible Touch, a 1991 album We Can't Dance became their fifth UK chart topper. Genesis scored twenty UK Top 40 singles. Peter Gabriel announced he was leaving Genesis during 1975. He scored the 1986 US No.1 single Sledgehammer.
At the 1987 MTV Music Awards, Peter Gabriel won Best video, Best male video, Best concept video, Best special effects plus five other awards for Sledgehammer. Steve Hackett left Genesis in 1977. Genesis fans turning up at the Roxy Club box office in Los Angeles to buy tickets for a forthcoming gig in 1980, were surprised to find the band members Collins, Banks and Rutherford selling the tickets themselves.
As a solo artist Phil Collins has scored the 1988 UK and US No.1 single A Groovy Kind Of Love plus six other US No.1's and four UK No.1 solo albums. Mike Rutherford formed Mike And The Mechanics who scored the 1989 US No.1 and UK No.2 single The Living Years.
1973 - Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley was nearly electrocuted during a concert in Florida when he touched a short-circuited light. The guitarist was carried from the stage but returned 10 minutes later to finish the show.
1976 - Al Stewart debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 with Year of the Cat. It peaked at No.8, but not until March 1977.
1982 - Singer, TV actress and dancer Toni Basil went to No.1 on the US singles chart with Mickey, making her a US one hit wonder. It made No.2 hit in the UK.
1982 - The Jam played their last ever gig as a band when they appeared in Brighton, England. Singer and guitarist Paul Weller went on to form The Style Council with keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee.
1992 - Manic Street Preacher Nicky Wire was quoted as saying 'I hope Michael Stipe goes the same way as Freddie Mercury'.
1996 - Johnny Marr and Morrissey were left with a £300,000 legal bill after loosing a case over unpaid royalties with former Smiths members Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce.
1998 - During a gig in Tuscon, Arizona, Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson was hit by a bottle thrown from the audience. A security guard was then stabbed trying to eject a man from the crowd.
1998 - The Artist Formerly Known as Prince and his wife, Mayte Garcia-Nelson, announced they planned to annul their three-year marriage - for now. They 'want to proceed without any sort of contract held by social conventions', he said at a news conference in Madrid. On Valentine's Day 1999, the couple plan to reunite in Spain, 'leaving aside legal proceedings that do no more than separate people', he said. "Mayte and I are joined for life, and the best way to demonstrate it is to do away with the legal bonds that people demand".
2000 - Former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft was forced to cancel the remaining dates on his current UK tour after he fell on stage and broke two ribs. The accident happened during a show in Birmingham.
2001 - David Soul won a lawsuit against Matthew Wright, a London theatre critic who criticised Soul's stage performance without even seeing it. Wright's column had made reference to the Monday performance, when in fact, the play did not run on Mondays.
2002 - Carlos Santana performed at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway.
2003 - Bobby Brown was charged with battery after allegedly hitting wife Whitney Houston in the face. Brown, turned himself in to the police three days after a reported domestic dispute at the couple's home in Atlanta, Georgia. Houston, who accompanied her husband to court, said they were trying to work out their problems 'privately'.
2007 – Popular local Timaru entertainer, Mark “Rangi” Gillespie, died this day when he lost control of his motorcycle on Beaconsfield Road in the early hours of the morning.
2008 - Simon Cowell said he was "very embarrassed" after contracts signed by this year's X Factor contestants were leaked to the Daily Mirror newspaper. The 80-page document, which is enforceable "anywhere in the world or the solar system" was signed by all 12 finalists before the live shows began. It included a clause that prevents them from saying anything "unduly negative, critical or derogatory" about Cowell. Also the show claimed the prize as a "£1m recording contract", but the contestants' contract said the prize money was £150,000.
1940 - Born this day, David Gates, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, musician, keyboardist, guitarist, bass, singer, Bread, 1970 US No.1 and UK No.5 single Make It With You. Solo, Goodbye Girl.
1954 - Born on this day, Jermaine Jackson, The Jackson Five, (1970 US No.1 & UK No.2 single 'I Want You Back',) The Jackson's, (1977 UK No.1 single 'Show You The Way To Go'), solo, (1985 UK No.6 single 'Do What You Do').
1957 - Rock and roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis secretly married his third wife, 13-year-old Myra Gail Brown, who was also his third cousin, in Hernando, Tennessee, while still married to his first wife Jane Mitcham. Myra's parents were not told of their coupling until the story was broken by the press the following year. Lewis neglected to divorce his wife Jane Mitcham until April 1958.
1958 - Born this day, Nikki Sixx [Frank Ferranno], in San Jose, California, musician, bassist, Motley Crue, 1988 UK No.23 single You're All I Need and 1989 US No.1 album Dr Feelgood. Albums - Too Fast for Love and Theatre of Pain.
1963 - Frank Sinatra Jr. was released in Los Angeles after his father paid a $240,000 ransom.
1964 - Died this day, Sam Cooke [Samuel Cook], soul and R&B singer, he was shot and clubbed to death by a motel manageress, Bertha Lee Franklin, after breaking into her office looking for a woman who escaped from his motel room that he had forcefully brought there. He was born on 22 January 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, US. Some of his songs include You Send Me and Bring It On Home to Me. He was a member of The Soul Stirrers, and is also a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee. He was 33.
1968 - Liverpool folk group The Scaffold were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Lily The Pink', this year's Christmas No.1. 'Lily the Pink' was a new version of an older folk song entitled 'The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham', and a similar version was the unofficial regimental song of the Royal Tank Corps, at the end of World War II.
1971 - UK comedian Benny Hill, started a four week run at No.1 in the UK with Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West). It gave Hill his only No.1 and the Christmas No.1 single of 1971.
1972 - James Brown was arrested after show in Tennessee for trying to incite a riot. Brown threatened to sue the city for $1m, the charges were later dropped.
1972 - Genesis played their first gig in the US at Brandeis University near Boston, Massachusetts.
Genesis - Phil Collins, vocals and drums. Mike Rutherford guitar. Tony Banks keyboards. Peter Gabriel vocals. Steve Hackett guitar, formed as The Garden Wall in Surrey, England, in 1966. UK music impresario Jonathan King suggested the name Genesis. The band had the 1986 US No.1 single Invisible Touch, a 1991 album We Can't Dance became their fifth UK chart topper. Genesis scored twenty UK Top 40 singles. Peter Gabriel announced he was leaving Genesis during 1975. He scored the 1986 US No.1 single Sledgehammer.
At the 1987 MTV Music Awards, Peter Gabriel won Best video, Best male video, Best concept video, Best special effects plus five other awards for Sledgehammer. Steve Hackett left Genesis in 1977. Genesis fans turning up at the Roxy Club box office in Los Angeles to buy tickets for a forthcoming gig in 1980, were surprised to find the band members Collins, Banks and Rutherford selling the tickets themselves.
As a solo artist Phil Collins has scored the 1988 UK and US No.1 single A Groovy Kind Of Love plus six other US No.1's and four UK No.1 solo albums. Mike Rutherford formed Mike And The Mechanics who scored the 1989 US No.1 and UK No.2 single The Living Years.
1973 - Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley was nearly electrocuted during a concert in Florida when he touched a short-circuited light. The guitarist was carried from the stage but returned 10 minutes later to finish the show.
1976 - Al Stewart debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 with Year of the Cat. It peaked at No.8, but not until March 1977.
1982 - Singer, TV actress and dancer Toni Basil went to No.1 on the US singles chart with Mickey, making her a US one hit wonder. It made No.2 hit in the UK.
1982 - The Jam played their last ever gig as a band when they appeared in Brighton, England. Singer and guitarist Paul Weller went on to form The Style Council with keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee.
1992 - Manic Street Preacher Nicky Wire was quoted as saying 'I hope Michael Stipe goes the same way as Freddie Mercury'.
1996 - Johnny Marr and Morrissey were left with a £300,000 legal bill after loosing a case over unpaid royalties with former Smiths members Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce.
1998 - During a gig in Tuscon, Arizona, Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson was hit by a bottle thrown from the audience. A security guard was then stabbed trying to eject a man from the crowd.
1998 - The Artist Formerly Known as Prince and his wife, Mayte Garcia-Nelson, announced they planned to annul their three-year marriage - for now. They 'want to proceed without any sort of contract held by social conventions', he said at a news conference in Madrid. On Valentine's Day 1999, the couple plan to reunite in Spain, 'leaving aside legal proceedings that do no more than separate people', he said. "Mayte and I are joined for life, and the best way to demonstrate it is to do away with the legal bonds that people demand".
2000 - Former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft was forced to cancel the remaining dates on his current UK tour after he fell on stage and broke two ribs. The accident happened during a show in Birmingham.
2001 - David Soul won a lawsuit against Matthew Wright, a London theatre critic who criticised Soul's stage performance without even seeing it. Wright's column had made reference to the Monday performance, when in fact, the play did not run on Mondays.
2002 - Carlos Santana performed at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway.
2003 - Bobby Brown was charged with battery after allegedly hitting wife Whitney Houston in the face. Brown, turned himself in to the police three days after a reported domestic dispute at the couple's home in Atlanta, Georgia. Houston, who accompanied her husband to court, said they were trying to work out their problems 'privately'.
2007 – Popular local Timaru entertainer, Mark “Rangi” Gillespie, died this day when he lost control of his motorcycle on Beaconsfield Road in the early hours of the morning.
2008 - Simon Cowell said he was "very embarrassed" after contracts signed by this year's X Factor contestants were leaked to the Daily Mirror newspaper. The 80-page document, which is enforceable "anywhere in the world or the solar system" was signed by all 12 finalists before the live shows began. It included a clause that prevents them from saying anything "unduly negative, critical or derogatory" about Cowell. Also the show claimed the prize as a "£1m recording contract", but the contestants' contract said the prize money was £150,000.