Birthday Highlight:

Guitarist Slim Dunlap is 64 today. Bob "Slim" Dunlap was born in Plainview, Minn., in 1951 and was a known as a respected local guitarist (and First Avenue employee) before being hired by the Replacements as Bob Stinson's replacement after Stinson was let go in the mid-1980s. Dunlap continued his career after the Replacements called it quits, performing regular shows (such as his popular gigs at the Turf Club) up until 2012 when he suffered a massive stroke that has debilitated him ever since. The remaining Replacements created the Songs For Slim charity project to help cover Slim's ongoing healthcare costs, beginning with their reunion album released in 2013. Today we continue to wish Slim and his family the best as we keep them in our thoughts.

Also, Today In:

1962 - Unhappy with drummer Pete Best's role in The Beatles, the band's manager Brian Epstein and the other three members decided to let him go. Best played his last gig the following night at The Cavern, Liverpool.

1965 - Sonny & Cher started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "I Got You Babe."

1967 - All U.K. offshore pirate radio stations were closed down when the marine broadcasting act came into force. A fictionalized account of these offshore stations is told in the 2009 film Pirate Radio (called The Boat that Rocked in the U.K.), featuring an ensemble cast that included Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh, Chris O'Dowd, January Jones, Jack Davenport, Gemma Arterton and others.

1976 - Funded by a £400 ($620) loan, "So It Goes" by Nick Lowe became the first record released on Stiff Records.

1985 - Michael Jackson won a bid over Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney to secure the ATV Music Publishing catalogue. At a cost of $47.5 million, Jackson gained the rights to more than 250 songs written by Lennon and McCartney.

1995 - Foo Fighters made their network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman when they performed their single, "This Is A Call."

2001 - A pizza-stained piece of paper signed by three of the four Beatles sold for $48,000 to an anonymous collector at an auction in Melbourne. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison all signed the paper during their 1964 tour of Australia. Drummer Ringo Starr had laryngitis and was not on the tour.

2005 - Faith Hill was at No. 1 on the U.S. chart with "Fireflies."

Other Birthdays:

David Crosby is 74.

Actor, comedian and musician Steve Martin is 70.

Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham is 69.

Related

• Songs for Slim