Today in rock history 15th March

1911 – Born on this day, blues guitarist and singer Sam ‘Lightnin’ Hopkins. 1940 – Born on this day, Phil Lesh, bass, The Grateful Dead. 1947 – Ry Cooder is born in Los Angeles 1955 – Dee Snider of the heavy metal group Twisted Sister is born in Massapequa, N.Y. 1963 – Bret Michaels is born Bret Michael Sychak, 1967 – The first session .George Harrison’s new song ‘Within You Without You’ took place at Abbey Road studios. 1969 – Cream started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK chart with their album ‘Goodbye.’ 1969 – Janis Joplin was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. 1969 – Tyrannosaurus Rex singer Marc Bolan’s first book of poetry ‘The Warlock Of Love’ was published. 1972 – Born on this day, Mark Hoppus, Blink 182. 1975 – Led Zeppelin went to No.1 on the UK chart with the double album ‘Physical Graffiti’, the first on their own ‘Swan Song’ label, the album spent six weeks at No.1 on the US chart. 1977 – Pink Floyd played the first of six sold-out nights at Empire Pool, Wembley, London. 1986 – Starship went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Sara’, it reached No.66 in the UK. 1989 – The Rolling Stones signed a $70 million (£40 million) contract to play 50 North American dates. It was the largest contract in rock history. 2000 – Mick Jagger was ordered to increase his child support payments to Brazilian model Luciana Morad from $5,500 (£3,235) a month to $10,000 (£5,888). 2000 – Sir Paul McCartney confirmed that him and former model Heather Mills had become ‘an item’. The couple had met after working on the same charity project. 2002 – Yoko Ono unveiled a seven foot bronze statue of John Lennon overlooking the check- in hall of Liverpool John Lennon airport. The re-branding of the airport featured a sketch of Lennon’s face with the words ‘Above Us Only Skies.’ 2004 – Prince, George Harrison, Traffic, ZZ Top, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne, the Dells and Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner are welcomed into the ranks of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 2008 – Six people were charged with conspiracy to defraud the Isle of Wight Festival by trying to sell fake tickets and wristbands. A police investigation was launched after alleged counterfeit tickets were discovered at last year’s event, which was headlined by the Rolling Stones. 2010 – A rare Led Zeppelin live recording has been unearthed – in a car boot sale. The band’s celebrated gig at St. Matthews Baths Hall, a converted swimming pool in Ipswich, during November 1971 was never actually recorded. Or so everyone thought.