Pick a Day

Keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin, who is on tour with Smashing Pumpkins when he dies of a drug overdose in 1996, is born in Los Angeles. He is the brother of Wendy Melvoin of Wendy & Lisa.

Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is born in Joliet, Illinois. Drug problems get him booted from the group in 1996, but he's welcomed back in 1998.

Billy Corgan is born in Elk Grove Village, a suburb of Chicago. He forms Smashing Pumpkins in 1988, taking the reins as their lead singer, guitarist and songwriter. They carve out a sound in the '90s distinguished by waves of sound and Corgan's emotional intensity. Popular tracks include "1979" and "Bullet With Butterfly Wings."

Guitarist James Iha is born in Chicago. In 1988 he forms Smashing Pumpkins with Billy Corgan. The band breaks up in 2000 and reforms in 2006, but Iha doesn't rejoin until 2018.

D'Arcy Wretsky-Brown (bass guitarist for The Smashing Pumpkins) is born in South Haven, Michigan.

Bass player Melissa Auf der Maur is born in Montreal, Quebec. She's in Courtney Love's group Hole from 1994-1999, and does a stint in Smashing Pumpkins from 1999-2000.

Red Hot Chili Peppers kick off their Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour with a show in Madison, Wisconsin. Their opening acts are Smashing Pumpkins and a new band called Pearl Jam.

Smashing Pumpkins release their album Siamese Dream, planting their flag in the fecund field of alternative rock. Tracks like "Today" and "Disarm" get lots of airplay, earning the band a headlining slot on Lollapalooza 1994.

Stung by a bad review, Billy Corgan comes out for the encore at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in London dressed like an angry clown. "I've sold out, how about you?" he rants at the audience. He later explains: "The joke was: you're all making me feel like a clown, so I'm going to be one."

San Francisco's legendary rock venue the Fillmore Auditorium reopens with performances by The Smashing Pumpkins and American Music Club.

Smashing Pumpkins release their double album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Many of the songs, including "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," find lead singer Billy Corgan poking fun at his reputation for never seeming happy by leaning into it in very dramatic fashion.

Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Peter Frampton and Cypress Hill appear on the "Homerpalooza" episode of The Simpsons, a spoof on the Lollapalooza tour. Cypress Hill, the first rappers to guest star on the show, are accused of ordering the London Symphony Orchestra while high, and end up teaming with them on "Insane In The Brain."

The Beastie Boys host the first Tibetan Freedom Concert, with performers that include Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins and John Lee Hooker. About 100,000 attend the two shows, raising money for the Milarepa Fund.More

The night before a show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin dies at age 34 after shooting heroin with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who is fired from the band a few days later (he returns to the fold in 1999). The Sarah McLachlan song "Angel" is inspired by Melvoin's death.

Jimmy Chamberlin, charged with drug possession, pleads guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct. The Smashing Pumpkins drummer was shooting heroin with touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin in July when Melvoin overdosed and died. Chamberlin was fired from the band, but returns in 1999.

Smashing Pumpkins play a free outdoor show in downtown Minneapolis attended by about 125,000. They wanted to do an entire tour of free concerts to promote their album Adore, but couldn't cut through the red tape anywhere but Minneapolis.

Kiss launch their Psycho Circus tour with a Halloween show in Los Angeles. The aptly named Smashing Pumpkins are the opening act.

Billy Corgan announces that The Smashing Pumpkins will break up at the end of the year, saying they are tired of "fighting the good fight against the Britneys of the world."

Smashing Pumpkins, who have announced their split, give their new album Machina II: The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music a very limited release, sending just 25 copies to fans and associates with instructions to rip them and post them online.

Smashing Pumpkins frontman and Zwan leader Billy Corgan presents a multimedia poetry performance in his Chicago hometown, opening the Poetry Center of Chicago's 31st Annual Reading Series at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium.

Smashing Pumpkins, who split in 2000, announce their reunion. A year later they release a new album, Zeitgeist.