Suicide

Composer and designer of string instruments Alfred Stelzner commits suicide at his home in Dresden, Germany, Europe. Although his inventions, the violotta and the cellone, were highly praised and endorsed by famous musicians, his company had gone brankrupt, leaving him faced with insurmountable financial problems.

Beverley Kenney is born in Harrison, New Jersey, USA. She will become an acclaimed jazz singer but will commit suicide at the age of 28 by consuming a lethal overdose of alcohol and Seconal in her Greenwich Village apartment in New York City, USA.

Boruch Alan Bermowitz is born in Brooklyn, New York City, USA. He will find international acclaim as Alan Vega, co-founder of pioneering electro-punk duo Suicide.

Country music singer and songwriter Jimmie Osborne is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his trailer home near Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

Elvis Presley is in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, re-shooting the ending of Wild In The Country, because pre-release screening audiences did not like the original ending in which Hope Lange committed suicide.

Elvis Presley is in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, re-shooting the ending of Wild In The Country, because pre-release screening audiences did not like the original ending in which Hope Lange committed suicide.

Phil Everly heads the bill on a package tour at The ABC, Lincoln, UK. The show is supposed to star The Everly Brothers, but Don Everly collapsed after a suicide attempt in London's Savoy Hotel. Other acts on the bill include Frank Ifield, Ketty Lester and The Vernons Girls.

Phil Everly heads the bill on a package tour at The ABC, Kingston, UK. The show is supposed to star The Everly Brothers, butDon Everly collapsed after a suicide attempt in London's Savoy Hotel. Other acts on the bill include Frank Ifield, Ketty Lester and The Vernons Girls.

Phil Everly heads the bill on a package tour at The Theatre Royal, Norwich, UK. The show is supposed to star TheEverly Brothers, but Don Everly collapsed after a suicide attempt in London's Savoy Hotel. Other acts on the bill include Frank Ifield, Ketty Lester and The Vernons Girls.

Phil Everly heads the bill on a package tour at The Apollo, Ardwick, Manchester, England, UK, Europe. The show is supposed to star The Everly Brothers, but Don Everly collapsed after a suicide attempt in London's Savoy Hotel. Other acts on the bill include Frank Ifield, Ketty Lester and The Vernons Girls.

With his career in decline, rock'n'roll musician and songwriter Jimmy Donley dies aged 33, having committed suicide by asphyxiating himself with his car's exhaust fumes, in Long Beach, Harrison County, Mississippi, USA.

Don Drummond, saxophonist with influential ska/reggae band The Skatalites, dies in Bellevue Hospital, Jamaica, Caribbean, aged 37. He had been committed to the hospital as insane, and his death (controversially) will be listed as a suicide.

Having completed a post-mortem investigation, Gavin Thurston, coroner for the City of Westminster, reports the official cause of the death of Jimi Hendrix to have been inhalation of vomit due to barbiturate intoxication. He also reports that he found no evidence of an intention to commit suicide.

A San Francisco insurance company, after being sued by Janis Joplin's manager, pays out $112,000 on a policy covering the death of the singer. They had claimed that her death was suicide, but the court agreed with her manager, and a coroner's report, that Joplin died from an accidental overdose.

Rock'n'roll vocalist Larry Williams, famed for hits like Bonie Moronie and Short Fat Fannie, dies, five days after being found dying of a gunshot wound in his Los Angeles, California, USA, home. Friends insist that he was the victim of an assassination by an organized crime syndicate, but a verdict of suicide is returned.

In Manchester, England, UK, Europe, Ian Curtis of Joy Division watches the Werner Herzog movie Stroszek on television. The film is about an alcoholic musician who commits suicide. Two days later, Curtis will commit suicide by hanging himself.

Bob Dylan's close longtime friend Howard Alk is found dead at Rundown Studios, Santa Monica, California, USA. Alk's death is ruled a suicide.

Tom Evans, former bass player with Badfinger, is found hanged in the garden of his home in Surrey, England, UK, Europe, aged 36. Evans was the co-writer of the massive hit Without You.

David Bowie's schizophrenic half-brother, Terry Burnes, kills himself aged 47 by lying down on the railway lines at Coulsdon South station, London, England, UK, Europe. He is killed instantly by a passing train. Bowie refers to his half-brother in the line "a crack in the sky and a hand pointing down at me" in his song Oh, You Pretty Things.

European singing star Dalida, plagued by depression and a chaotic love life, commits suicide in Paris, France, Europe, with an overdose of barbiturates, leaving a note which reads, "Forgive me, life has become unbearable for me...". She had first found success in 1954 with her international hit single Bambina, and eventually sold over 85m records worldwide.

Ozzy Osbourne is cleared in an Atlanta, Georgia, USA, court of "culpably exciting" a young fan to shoot himself by listening to Ozzy's 1986 song Suicide Solution.

Country guitar virtuoso Danny Gatton, nicknamed The Humbler, locks himself in his garage and commits suicide by shooting himself, aged 49, at his home in Newburg, Maryland, USA. No specific reason for his suicide ever emerges, although friends and relatives were of the opinion that he had suffered from depression for many years.

Country recording star Faron Young dies, aged 64, in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, having attempted suicide by shooting himself the previous day. His ashes are scattered during a ceremony at Johnny Cash's estate, while Cash is away. Unfortunately, a gust of wind blows the ashes onto Cash's car. "When I came home, I found I had Faron on my windshield", remarked Cash later. "I turned the wipers on. There he went, back and forth, back and forth, until he was all gone."

Jim Ellison, frontman of Chicago-based 90s alternative rock band Material Issue, commits suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in his car in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The reasons for his suicide are not made public.

Alan Vega of pioneering electro-punk duo Suicide dies in his sleep, aged 72, in New York City, USA.

Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embark on a random killing spree, shooting dead twelve students and one teacher at Columbine High School, Columbine, Colorado, USA. The pair then commit suicide. The incident will become known as The Columbine High School Massacre. The 2005 song Cassie by Flyleaf is a response to the Columbine tragedy. Cassie Bernall was a student at Columbine High School who died in the massacre. Youth Of A Nation by P.O.D. is also a response to Columbine and a list of contemporary cultural references to Columbine can be found by clicking here.

Kevin Wilkinson, an acclaimed drummer who had worked with The Waterboys, China Crisis, Squeeze and many others, commits suicide by hanging himself at his home in Baydon, near Swindon, Wiltshire, UK.

Acclaimed jazz-pop interpretative vocalist Susannah McCorkle commits suicide by jumping from the window of her New York City apartment, after penning a suicide note.

Richie Lee, vocalist with Acetone, is found dead at home in Los Angeles, California, having committed suicide aged 34.

The Six Parts Seven and The Black Keys release a joint EP, The Six Parts Seven/The Black Keys, on Suicide S queeze records in the USA.

Pam Bricker, jazz singer and frequent collaborator with Washington DC band The Thievery Corporation, takes her own life in Maryland, USA. She had suffered for some time with clinical depression.

Iron Maiden release a live version of their 1983 single, The Trooper, in the UK on EMI Records.

The Age newspaper in Australia, Oceania, reports on the disposition of the estate and assets of Michael Hutchence of INXS, which had been estimated at between $10 and $20m but turned out to contain virtually nothing. The remainder of his estate had been sold off and used to pay legal fees.

British tabloid newspaper The Sun publishes an article entitled "Suicide of Hannah, the Secret Emo", which reports the death of thirteen-year-old British girl named Hannah Bond, who had hanged herself supposedly because of her involvement with a "self-harming 'emo' cult", which the newspaper directly associates with My Chemical Romance.

Lover's rock vocalist Jean Adebambo is found dead, aged 46, in London, UK. She had found success during the 1980s in the lover's rock style of reggae music with hits including Reaching For A Goal, Hardships of Life and Pipe Dreams, and was about to re-start her career when she dies. [It is later concluded that she committed suicide.]

Los Angeles Assistant Chief of Coroners, Ed Winter, rules that Paula Goodspeed, an alleged stalker whose body was found in her car outside American Idol judge Paula Abdul's estate in Sherman Oaks, committed suicide.

Gary Taylor, president and owner of Michael Jackson fanclub MJJcommunity.com, claims that up to a dozen grief-stricken Michael Jackson fans have committed suicide since the death of the superstar a few days earlier.

Music fan Michael Edward Pickels of San Jose commits suicide by jumping three stories to land on the stage during a Swell Season show at The Mountain Winery, Saratoga, California, USA.

Fashion designer L'Wren Scott, the girlfriend of Sir Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, is found dead - apparently having committed suicide - in her apartment in New York City, USA.

Minus The Bear release their sixth LP, Voids, on Suicide Squeeze Records.

Kim Jong-hyun, vocalist with popular boyband Shinee, dies in a rented apartment in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam District in southeastern Seoul, South Korea, Asia. He had been very depressed and, according to close friends, suicidal. Police rule his death a "possible suicide".