Today in Rock n' Roll History

[Koala]

1944 Jeff Beck was born.

1947 Mick Fleetwood was born.

1978 Genesis hits #23 with "Follow You Follow Me".

1978 Peter Gabriel hits #45 in the US with his self-titled second album.

1992 Billy Joel receives his high school diploma from Hicksville High School on Long Island, N.Y. He failed to graduate with his class in 1967 because of missed gym and English credits. The school choir sings Joel’s song “Summer, Highland Falls” at the ceremony.

1998 Johnny Cash joins Kris Kristofferson onstage in Nashville to sing "Sunday Morning Coming Down." It's Cash's first live performance since announcing he suffers from Shy-Drager Syndrome.

1999 Eric Clapton put 100 of his guitars up for auction at Christie's in New York City to raise money for his drug rehab clinic, the Crossroads Centre in Antigua. His 1956 Fender Stratocaster named Brownie, which was used to record the electric version of ‘Layla’, sold for a record $497,500. The auction helped raise nearly $5 million for the clinic.

2004 a Fender Stratocaster that Eric Clapton nicknamed “Blackie” sold at a Christie’s auction for $959,500 (£564,412) in New York, making it the most expensive guitar in the world. The proceeds of the sale went towards Clapton’s Crossroads addiction clinic, which he founded in 1998.