The database currently contains 7367 historical events.
- With his debut studio album “Based on a T.R.U. Story,” he reached No. 1 on the U.S. albums chart.
- Geoff Tate, former frontman of Queensryche, announced plans to form a “new Queensryche.” Rudy Sarzo, Bobby Blotzer, Glen Drover, Kelly Gray and Randy Gane pledged their support. At the same time, it remained uncertain whether the group would be able to use the Queensryche name, as Tate was involved in legal disputes with the other three members over his dismissal from the group and the use of its name.
- American lyricist Hal David, longtime collaborator of Burt Bacharach, died in Los Angeles at the age of 91 from complications following a stroke. Together they wrote dozens of hits for Dionne Warwick and other artists, including “Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “The Look of Love,” “Alfie” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head,” for which David won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Just months before his death, they jointly received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
- "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, marking Taylor Swift's first-ever career number-one single on the chart. It also achieved widespread international peak positions.
- Starship lead guitarist Mark Abrahamian, 46, suffered a fatal heart attack in Norfolk, Nebraska, shortly after a concert with Boston and Survivor. He collapsed in the dressing-room area shortly after the performance while talking on the phone with his fiancée.
- Internal emails from promoters of Michael Jackson’s planned 2009 This Is It concerts were released, in which they expressed concerns about his condition during preparations for the shows.
- Imagine Dragons released their debut album Night Visions, which gained popularity through prominent rock songs such as “Radioactive” and “Demons.”
- One Direction won a legal dispute over the right to use their group name. An American punk band of the same name claimed that it had used the name first. One Direction US sought $1 million in damages from the British group and a share of licensing revenues.
- Live recordings by Rory Storm And The Hurricanes were discovered in the basement of Storm's sister's home. Although the tapes were reportedly in very poor condition, an edited debut and only album, Live at the Jive Hive March 1960, was being prepared. After listening to the recordings, Ringo Starr officially denied that he was the drummer on them.
- Coldplay set attendance records at several European concerts during their Mylo Xyloto tour.
- American singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Joe South died of a heart attack at his home in Georgia at the age of 72. He was known for his own hits “Games People Play” and “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” and for writing “Hush” for Deep Purple, “Rose Garden” for Lynn Anderson and “Down in the Boondocks” for Billy Joe Royal.
- Dorothy McGuire Williamson of The McGuire Sisters died at the age of 84. Together with her sisters Christine and Phyllis, she had 18 US Top 40 hits in the 1950s and 1960s, including the No. 1 songs “Sincerely” and “Sugartime”.
- Mandolinist Chris Thile, known from Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers, received a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. He learned about the award by telephone and initially thought it was an automated political call.
- British session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan, born James George Tomkins, died at the age of 71. He began his career in 1959 as a member of Marty Wilde's band, who bought him a Gibson Les Paul, reportedly the first example of that type in Britain. Sullivan taught future Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore to play guitar and also helped Steve Howe of Yes and Asia on the road to success. He played on 55 songs that reached No. 1 and worked with, among others, George Harrison, Frank Zappa, Thunderclap Newman, Love Affair, Long John Baldry, Marmalade, and The Tremeloes. During Jimmy Page's studio career, he was known as “Little Jim” to distinguish him from Page.
- The Mumford & Sons single “Babel” became, according to the source, officially the best-selling debut single of the year, with sales of 600,000 copies.
- Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA, aged 62, announced her return to recording after more than eight years away from the music scene. Her last album, My Colouring Book, was released in 2004. The recording sessions later resulted in the album A, released in 2013, and marked her return to music.
- Adele released the title song for the film Skyfall, the 23rd film in the James Bond series. She co-wrote the song with Paul Epworth; it was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with a 77-piece orchestra and premiered online on October 5 at 0:07 British time.
- Art Garfunkel canceled the remainder of his comeback tour because of persistent vocal problems following his 2010 diagnosis of vocal cord paresis. He stopped smoking tobacco and marijuana and restored his voice through careful exercises and performances in small empty theaters. He returned to regular solo performing in 2014.
- Mumford & Sons reached No. 1 on the UK chart with their second studio album Babel. The album also reached No. 1 in seven other countries, including the United States.
- Psy reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart with “Gangnam Style.”
- EMI withdrew the anniversary vinyl edition of The Beatles' single “Love Me Do” from sale because it had mistakenly been pressed with the version featuring session drummer Andy White instead of Ringo Starr. Apple Corps ordered the withdrawn copies to be destroyed, but some copies had already been sold by retailers and the surviving copies became highly valuable collectors' items; the incorrect version subsequently sold for high prices online.
- The British High Court ruled that The Times had not libeled Elton John in articles about tax avoidance because the singer was not directly connected to the story.
- The Rolling Stones released the single "Doom and Gloom," their first new studio recording in seven years, since their 2005 album A Bigger Bang. The song was the lead single from the greatest-hits compilation GRRR! It reached No. 61 on the UK singles chart and No. 30 on the US Hot Rock Songs and Rock Airplay charts.
- The eleventh annual Austin City Limits festival begins. Performers include Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The Black Keys, Florence + the Machine, and The Avett Brothers.
- B. B. Cunningham Jr., a member of Jerry Lee Lewis's backing band since 1997 and a former member of Ronnie and the Daytonas, was found shot dead at the Cherry Crest apartment complex in Memphis.
- An oil painting by German artist Gerhard Richter, owned by Eric Clapton, sold at auction for £21 million ($34 million), then an auction record for a work by a living artist. Clapton planned to donate the proceeds to the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, the rehabilitation facility he founded.