Pick a Day

27 DECEMBER

In Music History

2023 Nelly and Ashanti get married but keep it secret - TMZ breaks the news months later after discovering the marriage certificate. The couple dated on and off from 2003-2013, then rekindled their romance early in 2023.

2016 Actress Carrie Fisher, known for her iconic role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, dies of a heart attack at age 60. The daughter of Singin' in the Rain actress Debbie Reynolds and former wife of Paul Simon (see "Hearts And Bones"), she also inspired the Blink-182 song "A New Hope": "Princess Leia where are you tonight; and who's laying there by your side."

2014 Alicia Keys gives birth to a second son, Genesis Ali Dean, with husband Swizz Beatz.

2013 Britney Spears debuts her Las Vegas show, Britney: Piece of Me, which runs for four years at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

2013 Vanessa Carlton marries John McCauley of Deer Tick in a ceremony officiated by Stevie Nicks.More

2008 Delaney Bramlett (of the '70s blues-rock duo Delaney & Bonnie) dies from complications of gall bladder surgery at age 69.

2004 Hank Garland, a Nashville session guitarist who performed with Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline, dies of a staph infection at age 74.

2003 Dick St. John (of the '60s pop duo Dick & Dee Dee) dies at age 63 after a fall from the roof of his home.

1999 Puff Daddy is involved in a New York City nightclub shooting that injures three people. He and his girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, are arrested after fleeing the scene. Puff is put on trial for weapons possession and attempted bribery, but is found innocent in March 2001 after a six-week trial.

1989 Chuck Berry is sued by the former cook of his restaurant - The Southern Air, in Wentzville, Missouri - who claims Berry installed hidden cameras in the ladies restrooms and collected the videos. Over 200 former customers take part in a class action suit against Berry, which is eventually settled out of court.

1988 Hayley Williams is born in Meridian, Mississippi. She moves to Franklin, Tennessee when she's 13 and, two years later, signs a record deal and forms Paramore. She's still a teenager when they break out with the song "Misery Business" from their second album, Riot!, in 2007.

1983 Rock 'n' roll singer Walter Scott (of Bob Kuban & the In-Men) is shot in the back and left floating in a cistern, where he is found four years later. James H. Williams Sr., who married Scott's second wife, JoAnn, after the singer's disappearance, is found guilty of the murder. JoAnn also receives a five-year prison sentence for hindering the prosecution.

1982 Billy Joel plays a benefit concert in Allentown, Pennsylvania as his song "Allentown" makes its way up the charts.

1981 "Georgia On My Mind" composer Hoagy Carmichael dies of heart failure at age 82.

1978 The BBC comes under fire when it plays part of the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen," which has been banned on the network, on a show called "Listen To The Banned." The educator Dr. Rhodes Boyson calls it "another sign of the declining public morality which so rightly worries the general public."