History Highlight:

Today in 1992, Mary Wells died at 49-years old of laryngeal cancer. Wells helped define the sound of Motown in the early 1960s, and was part of the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations, and the Four Tops. She was known for her singles, "The One Who Really Loves You", "Two Lovers", the Grammy-nominated "You Beat Me to the Punch" and her signature hit, "My Guy".

Also, Today In:

1968 - The Jackson 5 signed to Motown Records on a one-year contract.

1970 - Jimi Hendrix played in his home town of Seattle for the last time when he appeared at Sicks Stadium.

1974 - Graffiti artists were hired to spray paint sites in London to promote the U.K. release of The Rolling Stones' new single "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll".

1975 - The Eagles started a five-week run at No.1 on the U.S. album chart with "One Of These Nights".

1975 - Van McCoy and the Soul City went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "The Hustle", his only US chart hit.

1977 - Elvis Costello was arrested as he performed outside a CBS Records sales conference at The London Hilton Hotel and was fined £5.

1977 - Led Zeppelin cut short their 11th North American tour after Robert Plant's five-year-old-son Karac died unexpectedly of a virus at their home in England.

1990 - Brent Mydland from The Grateful Dead was found dead on the floor of his home aged 38 from a drug overdose.

1997 - Puff Daddy and Faith Evans went back to No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart for another three weeks with 'I'll Be Missing You'.

2000 - The file-sharing service Napster was ordered by a U.S. federal judge to cease trading copyrighted music files within the next 48 hours.

2000 - Oasis were booed off the stage during a show at the Paleo Festival in Switzerland after Liam Gallagher had insulted the 35,000-strong audience.

2006 - The final edition of Top of the Pops was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London.

Birthdays

Mick Jagger is 73.

Roger Taylor, Queen drummer and backing vocalist, is 67.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.