Suicide

Steven 'Jesse' Bernstein is born in Los Angeles, California, USA. He will find a measure of fame as an underground writer and performance artist, best-known for his recordings with Sub Pop Records and his close relationship with William S. Burroughs. Bernstein's substance abuse issues and mental illness will ultimately result in his 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.

Revered British record producer Joe Meek scores his first hit as an independent producer when The Flee-Rekkers enter the UK Singles Chart with Green Jeans, a rocked-up version of the folk song Greensleeves, composed in the 16th century. It will peak at No23 and The Flee-Rekkers will flounder but Meek will go on to become a legend in British production circles, helming hits including Telstar by The Tornados, Johnny Remember Me by John Leyton and Have I The Right? by The Honeycombs, before committing suicide in 1967.

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, Plymouth, 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 Gaumont, Ipswich, UK. The show was 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 Hippodrome, Brimingham, 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 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.

Folksinger and folklorist Paul Clayton commits suicide, aged 36, by taking an electric heater into his bathtub with him in New York City, USA. It is said that the 1965 Bob Dylan song It's All Over Now Baby Blue and the 1970 Joni Mitchell song Blue are both said to have been inspired by Clayton.

Johnny Winter records Suicide Won't Satisfy, Blue S uede Shoes and I Wonder If I Care at Andrus Studios, Houston, Texas, 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.

American children's book author Art Linkletter tells a White House conference on drugs control in Washington DC, USA, that "Every rock'n'roll station is sending out, eighteen hours a day, messages to kids that are right over the heads of our generation - every time one of the Top 40 hit records is played, it is an advertisement for trips." (Linkletter's daughter had recently committed suicide after taking LSD.)

Pete Ham, songwriter and guitarist with Badfinger, hangs himself in his garage in Woking, UK. He leaves a suicide note criticising the band's manager, Stan Polley as 'a soulless bastard.'

Phyllis Major, the wife of Jackson Browne, commits suicide with an overdose of barbiturates in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. At least two of Browne's subsequent songs, Sleep's Dark And Silent Gate and The Shape Of A Heart, will be inspired by Major. Also, an earlier song, Ready Or Not, was written about how Browne and Major first got together after meeting in The Troubadour club in Los Angeles.

During their On Parole tour, The Clash play the third of four nights at The Music Machine, Camden Town, London, England, UK, Europe, supported by Suicide and The Specials.

Danny Rapp, leader of 50s rock'n'roll band Danny and the Juniors, commits suicide in Parker, Arizona, USA, by shooting himself, aged 42.

Innovative British record sleeve designer/video director Colin Fulcher, aka Barney Bubbles, takes his own life in London, England, UK, Europe, aged 41.

Californian teenager John McCollum commits suicide while listening to the Ozzy Osbourne song Suicide Solution. His parents will later sue Osbourne.

Jeannine Deckers, better known to the world as The Singing Nun, and her companion of ten years, Annie Pecher, both commit suicide by an overdose of barbiturates and alcohol at their home in the Green Horizons apartment building in Wavre, Belgium, Europe. She had enjoyed huge international success in 1961 with the hit single Dominique.

Tommy Kiefer guitarist and founder-member of Swiss metal band Krokus commits suicide by hanging himself on Christmas Eve. Kiefer was a long-term heroin addict.

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.

The trial of heavy metal band Judas Priest - based on allegations that subliminal messages in their 1978 LP Stained Class contributed to the deaths by suicide of fans Raymond Belknap and James Vance - comes to the end of its third week in Reno, Nevada, USA. Phyllis Vance, the mother of James, states, "They live off of young fans like my son, kids who invest all their money in bands like Judas Priest. James was my only child. He was my life. All the money in the world couldn't bring him back."

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

Underground writer and performance artist Steven 'Jesse' Bernstein commits suicide at his home in Neah Bay, Washington, USA, by stabbing himself in the throat three times with a knife. Despite serious substance abuse issues and mental illness, Bernstein had found a measure of fame because of his recordings with Sub Pop Records and his close relationship with William S. Burroughs.

The United States Supreme Court upholds rulings that the first amendment protects Ozzy Osbourne against lawsuits alleging that his music encouraged suicide. This decision relates back to the lawsuit brought against Ozzy Osbourne by the parents of 19-year old John McCollum, a young man who had committed suicide after listening to Ozzy's song Suicide Solution.

Monika Dannemann, who had been a girlfriend of both Jimi Hendrix and Uli Jon Roth of Scorpions, commits suicide at the age of 50, by inhaling carbon monoxide in her Mercedes at her home in Sussex, England, UK, Europe. Two days earlier, Dannemann had been found guilty of contempt of court for breaching an order of the High Court of England and Wales not to repeat allegations she had previously made against another of Hendrix's girlfriends, Kathy Etchingham.

Anne Beverley, mother of Sid Vicious, bassist of The Sex Pistols, commits suicide at home in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, England, UK.

Billy Mackenzie of The Associates commits suicide by overdosing on a combination of paracetamol and prescription medication in the garden shed of his father's house in Auchterhouse, Scotland, UK, Europe. Depression and the death of his mother are believed to have been contributing factors. At least two songs will be inspired by MacKenzie, including Cut Here (2001) by The Cure and Say (1999) by The Creatures.

In San Diego, California, USA, police discover the bodies of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate UFO religion cult who have committed suicide in order to reach an alien space craft which they believe is following the Comet Hale-Bopp. The recently-discovered Comet Hale-Bopp was about to make its closest approach to Earth. Also known as the Great Comet of 1997, it is perhaps the most widely observed comet of the 20th century, and one of the brightest seen for many decades. The 2012 song The Hale Bop by The Mystery Jets is about this grimly bizarre incident.

The funeral of Michael Hutchence, lead singer of INXS, is held at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, Australia, Oceania. His casket is carried out of the cathedral by members of INXS and by his younger brother, Rhett. Nick Cave, a friend of Hutchence, performs his 1997 song, Into My Arms, during the funeral.

Musician, poet, artist and performance artist Rozz Williams, best-known for his work with the bands Christian Death, Shadow Project (with musician Eva O), and with the industrial project Premature Ejaculation, dies aged 34 by hanging himself in his apartment in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Fans, estimated at around 50,000 in number, flood into central Tokyo, Japan, to attend the funeral of Hideto Matsumoto [aka Hide], guitarist of the group X Japan. The centre of the city is brought to a standstill as ambulances carry away dozens overcome by emotion and the 82-degree [28c] heat.

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.

Jeanette Sliwinski, suicidally-inclined driver of a vehicle which deliberately crashed into another car in Chicago, Illinois, USA, four days earlier, is charged with first degree murder. Members of the bands Silkworm, The Returnables and Exo And The Dials all died in the collision.

The Los Angeles Coroner's Office announces that the recent death of Keith Emerson, keyboardist with The Nice and Emerson, Lake And Palmer, was suicide. Emerson was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Santa Monica, California, USA. He suffered for many years with a painful nerve condition, and was thought to have become depressed.

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

American punk singer and former Star Trek actor Jon Paul Steuer dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, aged 33, in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Police discover the body of Frightened Rabbit singer and songwriter Scott Hutchison at Port Edgar, near South Queensferry, Scotland, UK, Europe. Hutchison had addressed mental health difficulties in his songwriting and was thought to be in a 'fragile' state of mind in the days before his death. He had talked about having suicidal thoughts in what is believed to be his final interview.