This Day in Music

2006 – Veteran British singer Rod Stewart is among the music industry stalwarts feted in the Queen’s New Year Honours list. Stewart is made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), for services to music.

2003 – Anita Mui, a Canto-pop singer and major Hong Kong film star, dies in Hong Kong of complications from cervical cancer. She is 40. Mui was often dubbed the “Hong Kong Madonna” because of her ever-changing image.

1999 – One of three victims of a Dec. 27, 1999 shooting at a nightclub attended by Sean “Puffy” Combs files a $100 million lawsuit against the rapper, his Bad Boy Entertainment, and others. Julius Jones claims that he was “Shot, battered, and assaulted” as the result of an altercation at Club New York allegedly involving Combs, Bad Boy rapper Jamal Barrow, and other employees of the label.

1999 – Former Beatle George Harrison is stabbed four times in the chest during an attempted robbery early in the morning at his home at Henley-Upon-Thames, near London. The 56-year-old musician and his wife Olivia struggle with the intruder and are able to subdue him until the authorities arrive. The couple is then transported to a nearby hospital where both soon recover without incident.

1998 – Johnny Moore, 64, a longtime member of the R&B vocal group the Drifters, dies in London of respiratory problems. Moore sang lead on the act’s mid-’50s hit “Ruby Baby” and memorably stepped in after the sudden death of Rudy Lewis in 1964 to take the lead on the Drifter’s last major pop hit, “Under The Boardwalk.”

1991 – Bruce Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa have a daughter, Jessica Rae Springfield. It is the couple’s second child.

1989 – Krist Novoselic of Nirvana marries Shelli Dilley in Tacoma, Wash.

1978 – Emerson, Lake & Palmer announce their break-up.

1945 – Davy Jones of the Monkees is born in Manchester, England. He is a racehorse jockey and an actor before the Monkees are formed.

1947 – Jeff Lynne is born in Birmingham, England. The singer-songwriter is a member of Electric Light Orchestra and the Traveling Wilburys.

1946 – Patti Smith is born in Chicago.

1942 – Michael Nesmith of the Monkees is born in Houston. Nesmith is the only former Monkee who doesn’t participate when the group re-forms in 1986.

1939 – Del Shannon (Charles Westover) is born in Coopersville, Mich. His biggest hit is the No. 1 song “Runaway.” He also writes “I Go to Pieces” for Peter & Gordon.

1928 – Bo Diddley (Otha Ellas Bates McDaniel) is born in McComb, Miss. The influential R&B/rock musician is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

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