December 22nd

Musical birthdays today include Pink Floyd session saxophonist Dick Parry (80), Animals drummer Barry Jenkins (78), Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen (74), fusion jazz guitarist Frank Gambale (64), former Moloko multi-instrumentalist and producer Mark Brydon (62), ex-2 Live Crew rapper Luther Campbell (62), former Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards (declared a missing person in 1995 and officially presumed dead as of the 23rd of November 2008, but one can hope that he turns 55 today), Vanessa Paradis (50), and American Idol Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks (33). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for composer Giacomo Puccini, born on this day in 1858... for avant garde composer Edgard Varèse, born in 1883... for early R&B singer Lil Green, born in 1919... for country singer Harold 'Hawkshaw' Hawkins, born in 1921... for former Big Brother & the Holding Company guitarist James Gurley, who would have been 83 today... for Bee Gees twins Maurice & Barry Gibb, who would have been 73... for Ma Rainey, who died on this date in 1939... and for John Graham Mellor, better known as Joe Strummer, who left us today in 2002. 

Also on December 22: Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Fourth Piano Concerto [performed by the composer himself] and 'Choral Fantasy [with Beethoven at the piano] (1808)... The Tornadoes start a three week run at № 1 on the US singles chart with 'Telstar'. Produced and written by Joe Meek, it is the first chart-topping hit by a UK act in America in the rock era... Bob Dylan performs his second UK gig at the Singers' Club, London (1962)... The Dave Clark Five score their only US № 1 single with 'Over and Over' (1963)... The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, The Who, Keith West and Tomorrow, Eric Burdon & The Animals, 1984 [featuring future Queen guitarist Brian May] and Soft Machine all appear at The Olympia, London at the all night festival 'Christmas On Earth Continued'. The DJ is John Peel, and the venue features a paddling pool, light shows and a movie theatre ~ tickets are £1 (1967)... Stiff Records releases an album  called The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan. Both sides of the disc contain 20 minutes of silence (1980)... 
Madonna starts a six-week run at № 1 in the US with 'Like A Virgin', her first US chart-topper. Family groups have sought to ban the Nile Rodgers-produced song in the belief that it encourages pre- and extramarital sex (1984)...  Nikki Sixx from Mötley Crüe is pronounced 'dead on arrival' in an ambulance when his heart stops beating for two minutes. Sixx is given two shots of adrenaline in his chest to revive him ~ fellow band members are prematurely informed of his death (1987)... Madonna marries film director Guy Ritchie at Skibo Castle, Scotland. Among those in attendance are Jon Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Sting and Stella McCartney. The couple will divorce in November 2008 (2000)... Google announces that Janet Jackson was the most-searched name during 2004, the singer topping a list of searches chiefly because of people looking for pictures from her infamous ‘wardrobe malfunction’ during the Super Bowl halftime show when she exposed her right breast (2004)... The Abbey Road pedestrian crossing in London NW1 is given Grade II listed status by the English Historical Society. The crossing, the first of its kind to be so listed, is recognised for its 'cultural and historical importance' by the conservation body. The Beatles were photographed on the thoroughfare in Ian Macmillan's iconic cover shot for the 1969 album ‘Abbey Road’ (2010).