History Highlight:

Today in 1983, Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys drowned in Marina del Rey, California. He is best remembered as their drummer and as the middle brother of bandmates Brian and Carl Wilson. He was said to be the only true surfer of the bunch, and his original songs for the group included "Little Bird", "Forever", and "Slip On Through".

Also, in:

1961 - Danny Williams was at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "Moon River". The Oscar-winning song was from the film "Breakfast At Tiffany's".

1968 - The Beatles went No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with the The White Album, the group's 12th U.S. No. 1 album.

1968 - The three-day Miami Pop festival took place, the first major rock festival held on the East Coast of the U.S., with Chuck Berry, The McCoys, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, The Turtles, The Box Tops, Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, Pacific Gas and Electric, Procol Harum, Canned Heat, Iron Butterfly and The Grateful Dead.

1971 - George Harrison was at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "My Sweet Lord", making him the first ex-Beatle to score a No. 1 U.S. hit. The song was originally intended for Billy Preston. The song was the biggest-selling single of 1971 in the U.K. Harrison wrote "My Sweet Lord" in praise of the Hindu god Krishna, and the song features slide guitar and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound treatment.

1978 - Chris Bell, Big Star guitarist, was killed after his car crashed into a telephone pole. He was 27.

1978 - Rolling Stone magazine voted Some Girls by The Rolling Stones "Album of the Year". It was the 16th studio album by the Rolling Stones, released in 1978 on Rolling Stones Records. It reached number one on the Billboard 200 album chart, and became the band's top selling album in the United States.

1996 - The Spice Girls scored their third U.K. No. 1 single with "2 Become 1".

2003 - 50 Cent's debut album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' was named the biggest selling album in the U.S. with the album going platinum six times over.

2015 - John Bradbury, the longtime drummer for the British band the Specials, died at age 62. He joined the band in 1979 after the original drummer left and was made a permanent member after playing at the recording session for the single "Gangsters".

2015 - Ian Fraser Kilmister, best known as Lemmy, died at the age of 70. The founder and frontman of English rock band Motorhead, we largely have Lemmy to thank for influencing the genre of heavy metal. Before becoming a rockstar himself, Lemmy was a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and the Nice, then joined the space rock band Hawkwind before founding Motorhead.

2016 - "Singin' in the Rain" star Debbie Reynolds died of a stroke at age 84, one day after losing her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, to a fatal heart attack.

Birthdays:

Roebuck 'pop' Staples of The Staple Singers was born today in 1915.

Dick Diamonde of The Easybeats is 71.

John Legend is 40.

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