Suicide

Popular Canadian songwriter, musician and recording artist John Stromberg commits suicide in Freeport, Long Island, New York, USA, by ingesting Paris Green insecticide. He had suffered severely from debilitating arthritis for several years.

Early in the evening, at an outdoor music concert by Caton's Dozen (a military band) in Winfield, Kansas, USA, thirty-six-year-old Gilbert Twigg kills eight people with his shotgun. Several others are injured, including the band’s drummer, Re Oliver. Twigg then kills himself with a .38 pistol. This is thought to have been the first indiscriminate mass killing in US history.

Harvey Logan, also known as Kid Curry, was an American outlaw and gunman who rode with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's infamous Wild Bunch gang during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On this day he shoots himself in the head to avoid capture by law officers near Parachute, Colorado, USA. The song Harvey Logan, recorded in 1963 by Dock Boggs for Folkways Records will be inspired by the outlaw's exploits.

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.

Maggie Jones records Suicide Blues and Dangerous Blues for Columbia Records in New York City, USA.

Suffering from depression and believing herself to be going insane, modernist novelist Virginia Woolf puts on her overcoat, fills its pockets with stones, walks into the River Ouse near her home in Rodmell, Sussex, England, UK, Europe, and drowns herself. The 2011 hit single What The Water Gave Me by Florence And The Machine is inspired by Woolf's suicide.

Montana, USA, newspaper The Billings Gazette reports that a destructive epidemic of black stem rust, which damages wheat crops, has spread to most counties in North Dakota, USA. Bob Dylan was a young teenage boy, living in neighbouring Minnesota, when this ecological disaster took place. His song The Ballad Of Hollis Brown is about a [fictional] farmer who, driven to distraction by the loss of his livelihood to black stem rust, kills himself and all of his family.

Alan Turing, widely considered the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, commits suicide at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, UK. A post-mortem examination establishes the cause of death as cyanide poisoning. When his body was discovered, an apple lay half-eaten beside his bed, and this was believed to be the means by which the fatal poison was consumed. The song The Apple [2013] on the album The Big Other by Fiction, is about Turing, who had been horrifically persecuted for his homosexuality.

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 Globe, Stockton, 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 ABC, Cambridge, 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 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 Colston Hall, Bristol, 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 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 ABC, Huddersfield, 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.

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.

David Jacobs, a showbiz lawyer who worked for The Beatles, Liberace and others, is found hanged in his garage in Brighton, England, UK, Europe. Although his death appeared, superficially, to have been suicide, it was widely thought that his death might have been ordered by notorious London gangsters The Kray Twins.

Jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler disappears in New York City, USA. His body will be found in the East River on the 25th of the month, and his death will be ruled as suicide.

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

US country music star Mel Street takes his own life on the morning of his 43rd birthday. On the same day, The Clash sack their manager Bernie Rhodes, claiming he has 'mismanaged' their finances. He is replaced by former Melody Maker journalist Caroline Coon.

Darby Crash, leader of seminal Los Angeles, California, USA, punk band The Germs, dies of a heroin overdose in a suicide pact.

World Boxing Association lightweight champion Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini defends his title against South Korean challenger Duk Koo Kim at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. During the fight, Kim suffers brain injuries that will lead to his death four days later. Kim's mother will commit suicide four months later, and referee Richard Green will kill himself in July 1983. Grief-stricken, Mancini will quit boxing in 1985. The 1987 Warren Zevon song Boom Boom Mancini examines Mancini's career in the light of the after-effects of Duk Koo Kim's tragic but accidental death.

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

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.

A young girl suffering from memory loss is prevented from committing suicide by jumping from the Severn Bridge, Bristol, England, UK, Europe. A newspaper report of the incident will provoke Fish of UK prog-rock band Marillion to write the songs which will be released as the album Brave.

James Vance, one of two American teenagers who shot himself three years earlier after listening to the Judas Priest album Stained Class, dies.

Phenomenally successful Japanese rock guitarist Hideto Matsumoto hangs himself in Tokyo, aged 33. 25,000 fans will attend his funeral, and three will commit suicide within days, believing life to be unbearable without him. He was best known under his stage name of Hide, as lead guitarist for X Japan.

Black Metal band Mayhem play in Sarpsborg, Norway, Europe. The show is recorded and will be released as the bootleg LP Dawn Of The Black Hearts, whose cover shows the band's vocalist, Dead (real name Per Yngve Ohlin), after his suicide.

Seriously alcoholic Doug Hopkins, guitarist and songwriter of The Gin Blossoms, commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with a .38-cal. special pistol on the bed of his apartment in Tempe, Arizona, USA.

One third of the ashes of Michael Hutchence of INXS are scattered in Rose Bay, Sydney Harbour, Australia, Oceania. The ashes had been split three ways, between his father, his miother and Paula Yates.

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.

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.

James Lawrence of Hope Of The States hangs himself at Real World Studios, owned by Peter Gabriel, in Box, Wiltshire, England, UK, Europe. The group had been recording its debut album.

Paramedics are called to the Nashville home of country singer Mindy McCReady after an apparent suicide attempt. They transport her to a hospital after finding wounds on her wrists.

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.

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.

Acclaimed and successful novelist, playwright and singer-songwriter Charlotte Greig (aka Charlotte Williams) dies aged sixty, by committing suicide, nine months after being diagnosed with cancer.

The results of a University Of Sydney study into the life-spans of musicians are published in The Conversation. After studying the lives of almost 13,000 musicians in the USA, the conclusions are that their lifespans were up to 25 years shorter than the comparable US population. Accidental death rates were between five and 10 times greater. Suicide rates were between two and seven times greater; and homicide rates were up to eight times greater than the US population.

Rock drummer Johnny Toobad, aged 55, falls to his death from the top of a shopping centre in Bayswater, London, England, UK, Europe. Toobad (real name John Elichaoff) was best-known as the drummer for Stark Naked And The Car Thieves and The League Of Gentlemen. He had been talked down from the same ledge two weeks earlier by police officers.

Mike Shinoda releases his solo debut album, Post Traumatic, much of which addresses Shinoda's feelings after the death by suicide of his Linkin Park colleague and longtime friend Chester Bennington, on July 20, 2017.