December 18th

 Musical birthdays today include bluesman Lonnie Brooks (89), jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith (84), Big Brother & the Holding Company led guitarist Sam Andrew (81), Keith Richards (79), ex-Santana lead singer Alex Ligertwood (76). former BeBop Deluxe guitarist Bill Nelson (74), French chansonnier Laurent Voulzy (74), ex-Cars lead guitarist Elliot  Easton (69), Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker (64), former White Lion drummer Greg D'Angelo (59), Alejandro Sanz (54), rapper DMX (52), Fear Factor drummer Raymond Herrera (50), Christina Aguilera (42), and Billie Eilish (21).

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for hymn composer Charles Wesley, born on this day in 1707... for composer & pianist Edward MacDowell, born in 1860... for empresario and former Animals bassist Chas Chandler, who would have been 83 today... for ex-Ozzy Osbourne drummer Randy Castillo, who would have been 71... for violin maker Antonio Stradivari, who died on this date in 1737... and for singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl, who left us today in 2000 at the age of 41 as the result of a boating accident. 

Also on December 18: Pyotr Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite premieres in St. Petersburg (1892)... The Tokens start a three week run at № 1 on the US singles chart with 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' (1961)... A day after arriving at Heathrow Airport, Bob Dylan plays his first UK gig ever at London's Troubador Club (1962)... Tara Browne is killed when driving at high speed in his Lotus Elan after it collides with a parked lorry in South Kensington, London. A close friend of Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, his death was immortalized in The Beatles’s song ‘A Day In The Life’ after John Lennon read a report on the coroner's verdict into Browne's death (1966)... Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, the group's debut album, is released (1969)...  Jerry Lee Lewis and his wife Myra, whom he married when she was 13, are officially divorced, as 'The Killer' prepares to marry 29-year old Karen Elizabeth Gunn Pate... Sly and the Family Stone go to the top of the Billboard album chart with There's a Riot Goin' on (1971)... In Durango, Mexico, Bob Dylan begins filming his role as 'Alias' in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1972)... Keith Richards celebrates his 40th birthday by getting married to Patti Hansen in Cabo San Lucas, with Mick Jagger as best man (1983)... Prominent activists of the women's movement including Glora Steinem and NOW president Eleanor Smeal lead a protest in front of the Time Warner Building in NYC against the Prodigy hit 'Smack My Bitch Up' (1997)... The Spice Girls unveil their waxwork look-alikes at Madame Tussaud's, London. Each model cost £35,000 to make (1999)... Jay Z becomes the first hip hop artist to release an album in the MTV 'Unplugged' series... Bruce Springsteen, backed by the Max Weinberg & 7 Friends Band, plays a show at the Asbury Park Convention Hall to benefit the Women's Center of Monmouth County, NJ, which serves local families affected by domestic violence (2000)... The Pixies wrap up their triumphant reunion tour with a show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. The gig caps an 8-month trek across Europe, North America and Australia, the group's first tour since the dissolution of the original band in 1992 (2004).