July 3rd

Musical birthdays today include New Orleans jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain (88), operatic mezzo-soprano Birgitte Fassbaender (79), French rocker Eddy Mitchell [né Claude Moine] (78), country singer Johnny Lee (72), original Yardbirds lead guitarist Anthony 'Top' Topham (71), Little Feat guitarist Paul Barrere (70), original Free bassist Andy Fraser (66), country singer Aaron Tippin (60), ex-Ratt lead singer Steven Pearcy (59), former Depeche Mode keyboardist Vince Clarke (58), Barenaked Ladies keyboardist Kevin Hearn (49), Audra McDonald (48), former Boyzone vocalist Shane Lynch (42), and rapper Kid Sister [née Melisa Young] (38). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer Leoš Janáček, born on this day in 1854... for George M. Cohan, born in 1878... for Mississippi John Hurt, born in 1893... for former composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, born in 1901... for jazz guitarist Tommy Tedesco, who would have been 88 today... for Fontella Bass, who would have been 78... for former heatwave lead singer Johnnie Wilder, Jr., who would have been 69... for Laura Branigan, who would have been 61... for Brian Jones, who died on this date in 1969... for Jim Morrison, who died in 1971... for Rudy Valée, who passed away in 1986... for former Morphine lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Sandman, who died in 1999... and for rock & country session saxophonist Homer 'Boots' Randolph, who left us today in 2007. 

Also on July 3rd: Victor Borge makes his American debut on NBC Radio (1945)... As the headline act at the festival, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk record the album At Newport 1958, with John Coltrane sitting in (1958)... A private party is held at the Speakeasy Club in London, England for The Monkees. The guests include John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Dusty Springfield, Eric Clapton, Lulu and all the members from Manfred Mann, The Who and Procol Harum (1967)... At an impromptu gathering at Joni Mitchell's house in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash play together for the very first time (1968)... On the last night of a 60 date tour, David Bowie announces he is about to retire from live performing, although it eventually transpires that it is 'Ziggy Stardust' the stage persona who is being retired, and not Bowie himself (1973)... Brian Wilson plays his first live show with The Beach Boys in seven years when they appear at Anaheim Stadium in CA... When rain stops play during the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, Cliff Richard launches into a spontaneous concert in which he leads spectators through some of his old hits. It is later revealed that Sir Cliff had planned the moment as a publicity stunt (1976)... The Human League have the № 1 single in both the US and the UK with 'Don't You Want Me' (1982)... U2 road crew member Greg Carroll is killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin while running an errand for Bono. The song 'One Tree Hill' on the Joshua Tree album is dedicated to Carroll... Mikhail Baryshnikov becomes a US citizen in a ceremony at Ellis Island (1986)... Harvard professor Ronald Ferguson accuses the culture of hip-hop and rap music of stalling academic progress among young American blacks. He claims that time spent learning intricate rhyming lyrics detracts from reading (2000)... Sir Elton John becomes the first pop/rock singer to receive an honorary doctorate from the Royal Academy of Music... Three diners at Britney Spears' newly opened restaurant in Manhattan suffer food poisoning. The trio of NYU students who had the striped bass at the pop diva's eatery file official complaints with the City Department of Health and vow never to eat there again (2002).