1946 Actor Alan Rickman (actor, Die Hard, Galaxy Quest, Snape in the Harry Potter movies, Sweeney Todd) is born. He dies in January 2016.
1958 The first Gibson Flying V guitar is shipped from the company’s factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
1961 The Beatles play their first show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
1965 Activist and civil rights leader Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City at age 39.
1981 “Back In Black” by AC/DC peaks at Number 37 on the pop chart.
1986 In defiance of Cincinnati Reds policy, pitcher Rollie Fingers refuses to shave off his trademark handlebar mustache. Instead, he retires from baseball.
1988 Disgraced televangelist Jimmy Swaggart chokes back tears as he confesses to his congregation that he “sinned” with a prostitute.
1992 Completing the sentence for his 1991 indecent exposure charge, actor Paul Reubens, better known as Pee Wee Herman, produces a public service video warning kids about the dangers of taking illegal drugs.
1992 While Pearl Jam is playing in Manchester, England, their manager is held at knifepoint and their tour bus is robbed by a youth gang.
1994 Nine Inch Nails releases The Downward Spiral.
1997 The “Special Edition” of The Empire Strikes Back arrives in theatres.
2000 David Letterman returns to his late-night TV show five weeks after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass operation.
2001 At the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards, U2 takes home trophies for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for “Beautiful Day”; Creed wins Best Rock Song for “With Arms Wide Open”; and Foo Fighters walk away with Best Rock Album for There Is Nothing Left To Lose.
2003 U2 frontman Bono is named MusiCares Person Of The Year.
2006 Kid Rock wins a temporary restraining order against the company that’s planning to release a video featuring Rock and former Creed singer Scott Stapp engaging in explicit sex acts with four women.
2008 Paramore scraps the last six dates of its European tour and returns home to deal with “a lot of internal issues that have been going on in this band for quite a while now,” according to a message posted online by singer Hayley Williams. The band denies it is breaking up.
2008 Linkin Park plays an intimate, six-song show for contest winners and record label staff at the Apple Store in the downtown Soho district of Manhattan.
2016 A lock of John Lennon‘s hair sells for $35,000 at an auction in Dallas, Texas.
2018 Vicky Cornell, the widow of late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, gives her first television interview since her husband’s death in May 2017 on ABC’s Good Morning America.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

• Ellen Page (Oscar-nominated actress, Hard Candy, X3: The Last Stand, Juno, Inception, X-Men: Days Of Future Past) (32)
• Jordan Peele (director/actor, Get Out, Key & Peele, Us) (40)
• Eric Wilson (bassist, Sublime) (50)
• Jennifer Love Hewitt (actress, Party Of Five, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Ghost Whisperer) (40)
• William Baldwin (actor, Backdraft, Sliver, Dirty Sexy Money; brother of Alec, Daniel, and Stephen Baldwin) (56)
• Kelsey Grammer (actor, Cheers, Frasier, X3: The Last Stand, Boss) (64)
• Anthony Daniels (actor, the man inside C-3PO in the Star Wars movies) (73)
• David Geffen (legendary record executive) (76)
• Chuck Palahniuk (author, Fight Club, Choke, Lullaby) (57)
• William Petersen (actor, CSI‘s Grissom, The Skulls, Fear) (66)
• Jack Coleman (actor, Noah Bennet on Heroes) (61)
• Ashley Greene (Twilight’s Alice Cullen) (32)