Today in rock history 21st July

1947 – Cat Stevens (Steven Georgiou) is born in London

1955 - Howie Epstein-bassist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is born today

1956 – Billboard dubs Elvis Presley “the most controversial entertainer since Liberace.”

1956 – Johnny Cash goes to No. 1 on the country chart with “I Walk the Line.”

1961 – Big Jim Martin, the scary-looking guitarist with Faith No More, is born in Oakland, Calif.

1968 - Jane Asher announces on a national British TV show, Dee Time, that her engagement to Paul McCartney was off by saying "I haven't broken it off, but it's finished.

1969 – The Who release their single “I’m Free” from Tommy. It goes to No. 37.

1971 – Jesus Christ Superstar mania seizes Pittsburgh. An audience of 13,000 packs the Civic Arena to see a special performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

1973 – Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin crash into the album top 20 with Love, Devotion, Surrender.

1977 - Despite protests, The Sex Pistols made their first appearance on the UK music show Top Of The Pops, where they lip-synched to their third single, "Pretty Vacant"

1977 – In Tucson, Ariz., Linda Ronstadt joins the Rolling Stones onstage to perform “Tumbling Dice.”

1987 – Paul McCartney finishes recording Russian-language versions of rock ‘n’ roll songs for his Soviet Union-only release Choba B CCCP.

1980 - Keith Godchaux, former keyboards player with The Grateful Dead, was killed in a car accident in Marin County, California.

1990 – The BBC issues an apology after one of its radio stations broadcasts a profanity-laden Madonna live performance.

1990 – Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters stages a production of his rock opera, The Wall, in Berlin

1993 – Bob Dylan films the video for “Blood in My Eyes” in North London.

1996 – In North Carolina, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil allegedly belts a fan trying to take his photograph. He’s arrested.

1998 – Scott Weiland is arrested again on a felony warrant in Los Angeles. Weiland posts the $250,000 bail and is released the next morning. Weiland’s court appearances stem from a September ’97 arrest, which alleged two charges of felony possession of heroin and misdemeanor possession of a hypodermic needle.

1998 – The Beastie Boys begin touring in support of their fifth release, “Hello Nasty,” at Seattle’s Key Arena. It is their first headlining tour since 1995’s “Quadrophonic Joystick” tour.

2003 – Dead Kennedys vocalist Brandon Cruz leaves the California punk legends to spend more time with his family.

2003 – Iron Maiden kick off their Give Me ‘Ed … ‘Til I’m Dead tour in Worcester, Mass., with Motorhead and Dio

2004 – Black Sabbath remove images from a film that plays during their Ozzfest set associating George W. Bush with Hitler after drummer Bill Ward posts his disapproval on his Web site.

2005 – British R&B artist “Long John” Baldry dies in Vancouver after battling a chest infection for four months. He is 64.

2007 - Don Arden, the man once dubbed “the Al Capone of pop”, father of Sharon Osbourne & manager of acts such as The Small Faces, Black Sabbath, & Electric Light Orchestra died of Alzheimer’s disease in Beverly Hills. He was 81 years old.

Today in rock history 19th July

1946 – Alan Gorrie of Average White Band is born in Perth, Scotland.

1947 - Bernie Leadon-guitarist for Eagles born

1947 – Queen guitar king Brian May is born in Twickenham

1948 – Grateful Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux (1973-79) is born in San Francisco.

1952 - Allen Collins-guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd born this very day

1963 – Another setback for the still-struggling Rolling Stones. On their way to perform at the coming-out party of the daughter of an English lord, Brian Jones falls ill. The Stones have to cancel and Mick Jagger will have to wait a decade to hobnob with royalty.

1969 – Having just turned 28, Spencer Davis decides to break up the Spencer Davis Group.

1969 - The Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" is released in the US, where it will become the fifth of their eight Billboard number one hits.

1973 – Byrds guitarist Clarence White is buried after being killed by a drunk driver. He was 29.

1974 – David Bowie wraps up his tour supporting Diamond Dogs in New York.

1976 – Deep Purple split up for the first time

1980 – Production of The Elephant Man starring David Bowie opens in Denver.

1986 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Invisible Touch,” Genesis.

1986 - Van Halen headlined the Texas Jam at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Other acts on the bill included Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Loverboy, Dio & Krokus.

1987 - Bruce Springsteen played his first ever show behind the Iron Curtain when he appeared in East Berlin in front of 180,000 people. The show was broadcast on East German TV.

1991 – Drummer Steve Adler files suit in Los Angeles against his former band, Guns N’ Roses. The 26-year-old claims band members pressured him to use heroin and then dropped him after he entered a rehabilitation program.

1999 – “Weird Al” Yankovic kicks off his Running With Scissors tour in Green Bay

2000 – Creed accuse Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst “of a mobster mentality” in his bid to get TapRoot signed to his label, Interscope.

2003 – The troubled Lollapalooza tour with Jane’s Addiction and Audioslave cancels an upstate New York date, citing rising production costs.

2006 – Thom Yorke has more reasons to be unhappy. The Radiohead frontman’s solo disc The Eraser debuts at No. 2 in the U.S. album charts, right below hits compilation Now That’s What I Call Music.

2010 - Ozzy Osbourne and his former Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi settled a long-running legal dispute over the use of the group's name.

Today in rock history 18th July

1929 – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – one of rock’s original showmen – is allegedly born on this date in Cleveland.

1939 – Singer Dion (Dion DiMucci) is born in the Bronx, N.Y.

1950 – Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk is born in the Hague, Netherlands.

1960 – It’s reported that Elvis has taken out a mortgage on Graceland for $164,000.

1964 – The Rolling Stones get their first U.K. No. 1 with “It’s All Over Now.”

1966 – Bobby Fuller of the Bobby Fuller Four (“I Fought the Law”) dies at age 23.

1968 – The Grateful Dead release Anthem of the Sun. Their second album fails to chart.

1969 – Janis Joplin and her Kozmic Blues Band make their first appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.

1970 – Pink Floyd and Deep Purple play a free concert at London’s Hyde Park that attracts an audience of 20,000.

1972 – Boston Mayor Kevin White helps get Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones out of jail in Warwick, R.I., so they can make their performance at the Boston Garden. The two were arrested for getting into a scuffle with a Providence, R.I., photographer.

1973 – Jethro Tull sell out three nights at the Los Angeles Forum in one-and-a-half hours.

1974 - The US Justice Department ordered John Lennon out of the country by September 10th. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denied him an extension of his non-immigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possession charge.

1978- Def Leppard made their live debut at Westfield School in Sheffield, England in front of 150 students.

1981- The Texas Jam was held at the Astrodome in Houston. The lineup included REO Speedwagon, Heart, Foghat & Blue Oyster Cult.

1983 - Abbey Road Studios in London is opened to the public, making it one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.

1988 – Nico – smack-addicted former lead singer with the Velvet Underground and the very model of a doomed diva – dies after falling off her bicycle in Ibiza.

1988 – A California court upholds an earlier decision clearing Ozzy Osbourne’s song “Suicide Solution” of being responsible for a teenager taking his own life in 1984.

1989 – Jefferson Airplane re-form. Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Grace Slick are joined by Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassady, who left the Airplane to play with Hot Tuna.

1994 – Singer Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries marries Don Burton in Ireland.

1994 – The Rolling Stones play a secret gig in a Toronto nightclub for their fans.

2006 – Pamela Anderson tells her Web site that she’s become engaged to Kid Rock – for a second time.

2007- Sting was ordered to pay his former chef $50,000 after being sued for sexual discrimination for being fired because she was pregnant.

2017 - Red West, a boyhood friend and member of Elvis Presley's "Memphis Mafia", passed away at the age of 81 after suffering an aortic aneurysm.