February 19, 1980

AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott dies after a night of heavy drinking. The coroner’s report lists “acute alcohol poisoning” as the cause of death, classified under “death by misadventure.”

Scott spends the night out in London drinking with friends at the popular club Music Machine. Leaving with a friend, Alistair Kinnear, he heads back to Kinnear’s home in South London, falling asleep in the passenger seat. Upon arrival, Kinnear can’t wake Scott, so he reclines the seat and leaves him to rest overnight in his Renault 5. The next morning, Kinnear again attempts to wake Scott, and realizes he’s not breathing. They rushed Scott to King’s College Hospital and pronounced dead upon arrival. Ronald Belford Scott was born in Kirriemuir–his stage name was an abbreviation of the expression “Bonnie Scotland.” The second son of Chick and Isa Scott, he arrived in Australia with his family in 1952, and attended the Sunshine Primary School, Melbourne, where he learned the recorder. His first public appearance was, in fact, playing a recorder duet in a school concert at North Fremantle Town Hall. He tried keyboards at home, but had no enthusiasm for them, then settled on the drums. He also learned the bagpipes, but we will always remember him as t was as a vocalist.

February 20, 1996

They acquitted snoop Doggy Dogg of murder, ending an ordeal that started in 1993 when his bodyguard shot and killed a rival gang member from the Jeep Snoop was driving.

February 21, 2001

Johnny Cash gets out of the hospital, where they treat him for pneumonia, and makes it to the Grammy Awards that night, where he wins for Best Male Vocal Country Performance for “Solitary Man” – his tenth Grammy.

February 22, 1989

The very unheavy Jethro Tull wins the first Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, beating out Metallica.

February 23, 1999

Eminem drops his first major-label album, The Slim Shady LP. He quickly becomes the most controversial rapper in the game.

February 24, 1998

Queen Elizabeth II knighted Elton John during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

February 25, 1995

Frank Sinatra performs in public for the last time. On the last day of the Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament in Palm Springs, Ol’ Blue Eyes sings a handful of songs to a VIP invitational audience: “I’ve Got the World On a String,” “You Make Me Feel So Young,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Where or When,” “My Kind of Town,” and “The Best is Yet to Come.”