August 23
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1962: John Lennon marries Cynthia Powell at the Mount Pleasant Register Office in Liverpool, with Paul McCartney serving as best man.
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1990: Nevermind arrives on studio tape as Nirvana begins recording with producer Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.
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1974: John Lennon looks out the window of his Manhattan apartment and spots a circular, hovering UFO flashing white and red lights. Baffled, he writes a frantic note in the liner notes of his Walls and Bridges album: "On the 23rd August 1974 at 9 o'clock I saw a U.F.O. - J.L."
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1994: The KLF (Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) fly to the remote Scottish Isle of Jura and burn £1,000,000 in physical cash in an abandoned boathouse, filming the burn just to see what it feels like.
August 24
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1975: Queen begins recording "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Rockfield Studios in Wales. The intense sessions take three weeks to finish the vocal operatic sections.
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1981: Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the murder of John Lennon.
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1968: The Who played a gig at a roller rink in Alexandria, Virginia. Frustrated by the terrible acoustic reflections off the wooden floors and concrete walls, Pete Townshend smashes his guitar into the ceiling, accidentally taking out the venue's entire overhead lighting system mid-song.
August 25
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1975: Bruce Springsteen releases, Born to Run
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1987: Alice Cooper runs for Governor of Arizona as a joke write-in campaign, using the slogan "A Troubled Man for Troubled Times."
August 26
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1968: The Beatles release "Hey Jude" in the US (backed by "Revolution"). It becomes their biggest American hit, holding the No. 1 spot for nine weeks.
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1970: Jimi Hendrix plays his final recorded performance in the US at the opening of his newly built Electric Lady Studios in New York.
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1970: At a chaotic party following Jimi Hendrix's opening night at Electric Lady Studios, someone slips strong acid into the punch bowl. Legendary mixer Eddie Kramer ends up hiding in a recording booth closet to preserve his sanity while tracking audio for the rest of the night.
August 27
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1967: Beatles manager Brian Epstein dies in London at age 32, a pivotal moment that marks the beginning of the band's eventual collapse.
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1990: Stevie Ray Vaughan dies in a helicopter crash at age 35 after performing at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin.
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1989: Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan buys a small hotel in Scotland, intending to run it quietly as a country retreat. It rapidly descends into chaos after fans track down the location, leading him to sell it shortly after at a major financial loss.
August 28
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1964: Bob Dylan introduces The Beatles to cannabis at the Delmonico Hotel in New York City
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1972: Alice Cooper’s famous boa constrictor, "Kachina," escapes through the plumbing fixtures of his Chicago hotel room. It isn't found until two days later, slithering out of a toilet on a completely different floor to the horror of a hotel guest.
August 29
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1966: The Beatles perform their final full commercial concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco
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1977: Iggy Pop releases Lust for Life, produced by David Bowie.
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1980: The "Heatwave Festival" in Ontario features Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and The Pretenders. The promoter loses over $1 million because tens of thousands of fans simply tear down the wooden security fences and stream into the park for free.
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