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Born on this day:
1928, Tony Williams, vocals, The Platters
1942, Allan Clarke, vocals, The Hollies
1948, Dave Holland, drums, Judas Priest
1950, Agnetha Faltskog, vocals, ABBA
1964, Christopher “Kid” Reid, rapper, Kid ’n Play
1966, Mike McCready, guitar, Pearl Jam
1968, Paula Cole, singer-songwriter
1970, Miho Hatori, vocals, keyboards, Cibo Matto
1973, Pharrell Williams, singer, producer, N.E.R.D., The Neptunes
1978, Duran Duran made their live debut at The Lecture Theatre, Birmingham Polytechnic.
1980, R.E.M. played their first ever gig when they appeared at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia. For more on this story, see This Day in Music Spotlight.
1981, Canned Heat singer Bob “The Bear” Hite died of a heart attack at age 36. The band played at both the 1967 Montery Pop Festival and the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
1984, Marvin Gaye’s funeral took place at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Los Angeles. Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Berry Gordy and other Motown singers, writers and producers attended the service.
1994, Kurt Cobain committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at his home in Seattle. Cobain’s body wasn’t discovered until April 8, by an electrician who had arrived to install a security system, who initially believed that Cobain was asleep, until he saw the shotgun pointing at his chin. A suicide note was found that said, “I haven’t felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing ... for too many years now.”
1998, British drummer Cozy Powell was killed when his car smashed into crash barriers on a motorway in Bristol, England. Powell had worked with Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Black Sabbath, Rainbow and the ELP spin-off Emerson, Lake & Powell. Plus he did session work with Donovan, Roger Daltrey, Jack Bruce, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore and Brian May.
2006, Gene Pitney was found dead at age 65 in his bed in a Cardiff hotel. The American singer was on a U.K. tour and had shown no signs of illness. Pitney helped The Rolling Stones break the American market with his endorsement of the band. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote his hit “That Girl Belongs to Yesterday,” which became the Stones duo’s first composition to reach the American charts. He scored the 1962 U.S. #4 single “Only Love Can Break a Heart,” plus more than 15 other U.S. and U.K. Top 40 hits.
2007, Former KISS guitarist Mark St. John died from an apparent brain hemorrhage at the age of 51. St. John was KISS’s third official guitarist, having replaced Vinnie Vincent in 1984 and appeared on the album Animalize.
2008, Apple’s iTunes overtook Wal-Mart to become the largest music retailer in the U.S. Market research firm NPD said iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart in January and February if 12 downloads are considered equal to the sale of one CD album. At that point, iTunes had sold more than four billion songs since its launch in 2003.
While the foliage has stayed alive and healthy for years, unfortunately, many of the memorial trees have now caught a deadly tree disease and are being cut down to stop the spread of a sickness, reports U.K. newspaper 
through the end of August.