Deaths Events

At only 36 years old, Marilyn Monroe died on August 5, 1962, at her Los Angeles home. An empty bottle of sleeping pills were found by her bed. There has been some speculation over the yea...

Rudy Lewis is the odd-man-out in the history of the Drifters. He occupied the lead singer spot from late 1960 until 1964, occasionally sharing that function with Johnny Moore later in his...

The final decade of Churchill's life has been described as a "long sunset." He continued to be feted and honored, and he enjoyed a final visit to the White House in 1959. During this peri...

On October 11, 1965, photographer Dorothea Lange died in San Francisco at the age of seventy. Lange is best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). L...

Spanky and Our Gang was an American 1960s folk-rock band led by Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane. The band derives its name from Hal Roach's popular Our Gang comedies of the 1930s (known to mode...

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English musician and one of the founding members of the rock group The Rolling Stones. Jones was known for his use of mult...

Alan "Blind Owl" Christie Wilson (July 4, 1943 – September 3, 1970) was the leader, singer, and primary composer in the American blues band Canned Heat. He played guitar and harmonica, an...

Early on September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in London under circumstances which have never been fully explained. He had spent the later part of the evening before at a party and was pi...

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger, from Port Arthur, Texas. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead ...

Dyke & the Blazers is a former American funk band. The Buffalo band Dyke & the Blazers picked up on the rhythms, bass and organ innovations of James Brown's band and released "Funky Br...

James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter, poet, writer and filmmaker. He was best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doo...

Linda Jones (14 December 1944, Newark, New Jersey - 14 March 1972, Harlem) was an American soul singer. She started in her family's gospel group the Jones Singers at the age of six. Her f...

Ronald C. "Pigpen" McKernan (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973) was a founding member of the band the Grateful Dead. His musical contributions to the Grateful Dead included vocals, Hammon...

Bloodstone is a former R&B, soul, and funk group, most popular in the 1970s and early-1980s. The band charted 13 songs between 1973 and 1984. Formed in 1962 in Kansas City, Missouri, t...

Establishing a permanent home on the Isla Negra, Neruda continued to travel extensively, visiting Cuba in 1960 and the United States in 1966. After Salvador Allende was elected president,...

Chase's work on a fourth studio album in mid-1974 came to an end on August 9, 1974. While en route to a scheduled performance at the Jackson County Fair, Chase died in a plane crash in Ja...

.After being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1974, he flew with his family from New York to Maui and he died at his home there a few days later on August 26th 1974. He is buried in the ...

David Michael Alexander (June 3, 1947 – February 10, 1975) was an American musician, best known as the original bassist for influential protopunk band The Stooges. He died of pulmonary...

Peter William Ham (27 April 1947 – 24 April 1975) was a Welsh singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the leader of the group Badfinger.

Gary Mervin Thain (15 May 1948 – 8 December 1975) was a rock bassist, best known for his work with British band, Uriah Heep. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Thain was part of the ro...

In late 1926 Agatha's husband Archie revealed that he was in love with another woman, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. On 3 December 1926 the couple quarrelled, and Archie Christie left...

Bolin's tour for Private Eyes was his last. In his last concert dates, he opened for Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck. However, his final show, in which he opened for Jeff Beck on December 3,...

Helmut Köllen (born March 2, 1950; died May 3, 1977 at the age of 27) was a German musician. He was the bassist and vocalist for progressive rock band Triumvirat in their most successful ...

In 2006, a journalist recalled: "Elvis Presley had [in 1977] become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self... he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviate...

Deborah "Debbie" Weems (February 3, 1951 - February 22, 1978) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for her recurring roles on Captain Kangaroo. During her final y...

Chris Bell (January 12, 1951 – December 27, 1978) was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star, which re...

Jacob Miller (May 4, 1952 – March 23, 1980) was a Jamaican reggae artist who first recorded with Clement Dodd. While pursuing a prolific solo career, he became the lead singer for reggae ...

On March 5, 1982, Belushi was found dead in his room at Bungalow number 3 of the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. The cause of death was a speedball; the...

On March 31, 1984, Marvin's parents had a domestic argument over misplaced business documents while Marvin, ill from drug use, lay in bed. Upon hearing this, he woke up and told his dad t...

D. Boon (born Dennes Dale Boon, April 1, 1958 – December 22, 1985) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Active between 1978, when he joined The Reactionaries, and 1985, when ...

During the European leg of the Damage Inc. tour in support of Master of Puppets, the band complained that the sleeping cubicles on their tour bus were unsatisfactory and uncomfortable. To...

Andy Warhol, 58, a writer, philosopher, film-maker and artist whose portraits of soup cans, celebrities and the social scene made him perhaps the best-known figure in what has come to be ...

After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana concert September 11, 1987, and being ejected from the premises, Pastorius made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida. A...

Alexander Nickolaevich Bashlachev (Russian: Александр Николаевич Башлачёв) was a famous Russian poet, rock musician and songwriter. Bashlachev was born on May 27, 1960 in Cherepovets, USS...

Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist and the first African-American painter to become an international art star. He gained popularity first as...

Pete Louis Vincent de Freitas (2 August 1961–14 June 1989) was a musician and producer, best known as a drummer with Echo & the Bunnymen. In 1961, de Freitas was born in Port of Spain,...

On March 16, 1990, Wood was found in a comatose state by his girlfriend, having overdosed on heroin. Wood was taken to a hospital and placed on life support. Despite being responsive, Woo...

At around 1:00 a.m. on August 27, 1990, Vaughan was flying by helicopter from East Troy, Wisconsin to Chicago with members of Eric Clapton's tour crew. The helicopter crashed into the sid...

On this day in 1990, Roald Dahl, the best-selling author of such children’s books as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, both of which were adapted for the bi...

At the time of his death, Clark was on a six-month leave of absence from Def Leppard. On January 8, 1991, Clark was found dead on his couch by his girlfriend Janie Dean. He was 30 year...

Pat Nixon died on June 22, 1993 of health problems, including emphysema and lung cancer. Her funeral services were held on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace during t...

Mia Katherine Zapata (August 25, 1965 – July 7, 1993) was the lead singer for the Seattle punk band The Gits. In the fall of 1986, she helped co-found The Gits while attending Antioch ...

James Raymond Jordan, Sr. (July 31, 1936 – July 23, 1993) was the father of the basketball superstar Michael Jordan and Army Command Sergeant Major James R. Jordan, Jr., and the grandfath...

On October 17, 1993, at around 3:30a.m., Criss and his wife Dawn were driving north on Highway 301 on his way to the Fourth Annual Livestock Festival held in Zephyrhills, Florida, just no...

The destination for the evening of October 30th 1993, was The Viper Room, a club owned by Johnny Depp, at 8852 Sunset Boulevard. River was wearing striped brown pants and black and white ...

Frank Zappa died on Saturday, December 4, 1993 in his home surrounded by his wife and children. At a private ceremony the following day, Zappa was interred in an unmarked grave at the Wes...

During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with drug addiction and depression, as well as the professional and lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, music...

Kristen Marie Pfaff (May 26, 1967 - June 16, 1994) was an American bass guitarist, best known for her work with Hole. Pfaff was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, attending Buffalo ...

Dahmer was attacked twice in prison, the first time in July 1994. After attending a church service in the prison chapel, an inmate attempted to slash Dahmer's throat with a razor blade. D...

Richard James Edwards (born 22 December 1967, presumed deceased on or after 1 February 1995) was rhythm guitarist and lyricist of the alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, from Bl...