4 JULY
In Music History
2025 Oasis play together for the first time since their 2009 breakup when they kick off their reunion tour in Cardiff. The first song in their set is "Hello."
2024 In Vancouver, Missy Elliott launches her first-ever headlining tour, with support acts Ciara and Busta Rhymes. Elliott, who is introverted and suffers from Graves' disease, kept a light performance schedule since 2004, the last time she toured.
2023 At his show in Las Vegas, Usher cozies up to the actress Keke Palmer while singing "There Goes My Baby." It blows up on social media and causes a rift with her boyfriend, Darius Jackson. In August, Palmer stars in Usher's video for "Boyfriend," poking fun at the controversy.
2020 On Twitter, Kanye West announces he's running for president. He forms his own political party, the "Birthday Party," telling supporters, "When we win, it's everybody's birthday."
2015 Ariana Grande licks some donuts on a display counter at Wolfee Donuts in Lake Elsinore, California.More
2014 The first Beatles movie, A Hard Day's Night, is re-released in American theaters to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
2014 Sia, the hit songwriter behind Rihanna's "Diamonds" and David Guetta's "Titanium," releases her album 1000 Forms Of Fear, which goes to #1 in America. For a "layer of protection," she wears a wig that covers her face while promoting the album and doesn't appear in the videos for the singles "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart," which instead feature interpretive dancing by Maddie Ziegler.
2013 Jay-Z releases his twelfth studio album, Magna Carta... Holy Grail, as a free download, but only for Samsung customers who can access it through the Jay-Z Magna Carta app. Non-Samsung users will have to tough it out and buy the album at retail price four days later.
2010 After attending a gay pride parade in London, George Michael crashes his Range Rover into a Snappy Snaps photo store in Hampstead, England. Convicted of driving under the influence of cannabis, he goes to prison on September 21 and serves four weeks.
2009 Drake Levin (guitarist for Paul Revere and the Raiders) dies of cancer at age 62.
2009 Allen Klein, an influential music publisher who simultaneously managed The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, dies of respiratory failure at age 77 after years of diabetes-related complications and an Alzheimer's diagnosis.
2007 Bill Pinkney (of The Drifters) dies of a heart attack at age 81.
2005 Rockabilly entertainer "Big" Al Downing dies of leukemia at age 65.
2003 Barry White, age 58, dies two months after suffering a severe stroke while awaiting a kidney transplant.
2002 Michael Abram, the man who attacked and nearly murdered George Harrison some 19 months earlier, is given a conditional release by a Mental Health Review Tribunal, to the fury of George's widow, Olivia. Says Abram: "If I could turn back the clock I would give anything not to have done what I did. But I have come to realise that I was very ill at that time, really not in control."
