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 along with 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 - 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.

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.

2006 - Paul McCartney's first guitar was sold at an Abbey Road Studios auction for 330,000 pounds, or about half-a-million U.S. dollars.

2012 - "Searching For Sugar Man", an Academy Award-winning documentary about Detroit Rocker Sixto "Sugar Man" Rodriguez, was released in the UK.

2013 - Oklahoma guitarist J.J. Cale, who wrote the songs "Crazy Mama', "Call Me The Breeze" and "After Midnight," died at age 74.

2015 - Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, died at age 22. The cause of death was eventually revealed as "immersion associated with drug intoxication."

Birthdays

Mick Jagger is 74.

Roger Taylor, Queen drummer and backing vocalist, is 68.

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