Violence

The Peasants' Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, culminates in the burning of the grandest nobleman's townhouse of medieval London, The Savoy Palace. This uprising against government injustice will inspire many songwriters to write about the events of the revolt. Among the most memorable are The Cutty Wren by Chumbawamba and Peasants Revolt by Wegrowbeards.

The WSM Barn Dance radio show in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, officially re-names itself The Grand Ole Opry. The show will become America's premier showcase for country music.

Child rapist, cannibal and serial killer Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish, aka The Werewolf Of Wysteria and The Brooklyn Vampire, is executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing, Ossining, New York State, USA. His gruesome crimes will provide the subject matter for songs including The Werewolf of Westeria by John 5, Albert Fish/Liverwurst by Green Jelly and Instruments of Hell by Exhumed.

A UK Silver Disc is awarded to the single A Scottish Soldier by Andy Stewart.

Rock'n'roll guitarist Hank Garland is released from Vanderbilt University Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, where he has been in a coma following a recent serious car crash.

Country music singer Faron Young is arrested for assault after throwing his drink in the face of a policeman at The Music City Club, 16th Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

The Rolling Stones, supported by The Hollies and Dave Berry, play at The Odeon, Rochester, UK. During the day, a scuffle follows an incident in which a security guard tries to prevent The Rolling Stones from entering the theatre.

Joan Baez sings at an emergency rally against The Vietnam War in Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA.

Roger McGuinn of The Byrds registers copyright on the song He Was A Friend Of Mine. The song is in fact traditional, although McGuinn composed a new lyric and made a new arrangement.

Loretta Lynn releasesa new single, Dear Uncle Sam, on Decca Records in the USA.

Wes Montgomery records Road Song, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, The Green Leaves Of Summer and Greensleeves, at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA, for A And M Records.

Mary Bell is convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, at Newcastle Assizes, Newcastle, UK. At the age of ten, she had strangled four-year-old Martin Brown in a derelict house and, just two months later, took part in the death by strangling of three-year-old Brian Howe. This horrific case will inspire several songs including Mary Bell by Macabre, Mary Bell by Monte Cazazza, Mary Bell by Stina Nordenstam and Look Out, Look Out by Perfume Genius.

Richard Tapper, 22 year old drummer for Los Angeles-based psychedelic combo T.I.M.E. (Trust In Men Everywhere) is seriously wounded when two men shoot him three times on his way to a jam at Los Angeles club Thee Experience. (N.B. some reports say Tapper was stabbed, not shot)

Lie - The Love And Terror Cult, an LP of songs by deranged, drug-fuelled mass murderer Charles Manson, is released in the USA by Awareness Records.

Andy Fairweather Low plays at Queensway Hall, Dunstable, UK.

Police in New York City, USA, arrest notorious serial killer David Berkowitz, aka The Son Of Sam, as he is starting his car outside his apartment on Pine Street in Yonkers. Berkowitz killed at least six people and wounded several others in the course of eight shootings in New York between 1976 and 1977. His murder spree will inspire several songs including Diddy Doo Wop [I Hear The Voices] by Hall And Oates, Son of Sam by Elliott Smith; Psycho Killer by Talking Heads, and Sam, Son of Man by Marilyn Manson and The Spooky Kids.

London-based music business manager Malcolm McLaren sends $50,000 bail money to secure the release from jail of Sid Vicious in New York City, USA. Vicious is released into the care of his mother.

When punk band The Cockney Rejects appear on British tv show Top of the Pops, after miming their way through their hit version of the West Ham football team theme, I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles, the band runs wild in the BBC's Broadcasting House and are, as a result, banned from performing on the show again.

At his home in St Catherine's, Jamaica, Caribbean, reggae artist Prince Far I is shot dead by gunmen during a robbery. His death will inspire the song Sept. 15th 1983 by The Mountain Goats.

Varg Vikernes, aka Count Grishnackh of Norwegian death metal band Burzum, is arrested for the murder by stabbing of another Burzum member, Oystein Aarseth, aka Euronymous.

AC/DC manager Crispin Dye dies in hospital in Sydney, Australa, Oceania. He had been badly beaten the day before, by thieves while on his way to visit his mother for Christmas.

After a fight with her boyfriend Andre Rison, Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes of TLC sets fire to his house. She will be fined and put on probation but will narrowly avoid a jail sentence.

Popular singer Joni James marries retired Air Force General Bernard Adolph Schriever, twenty years her senior, and leader of the crash program that had developed U.S. ballistic missiles — both ICBMs and IRBMs.

On the last day of the T In The Park festival in Scotland three festival goers are attacked in a campsite by an axe-wielding man.

Liam Gallagher of Oasis turns down the invitation to a boxing contest against Robbie Williams on the grounds that, "It's not what rock'n'roll is about. It's all got very childish and pathetic and I'll just let our music do the talking. A boxing match would be illegal to start off with. I'm not having anything to do with it."

A letter appears in UK newspaper The Guardian, protesting about US attitudes towards the use of chemical weapons. It is signed by Brian Eno, Robbie Williams, Peter Gabriel, Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox [Eurythmics], Thom Yorke [Radiohead], Joe Strummer [The Clash], Robert Wyatt [ex-Soft Machine], Robert Fripp [ex-King Crimson], Holly Johnson ex-Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and other politically-concerned celebrities.

Danny Tourette, lead singer of British band Towers Of London, is arrested for criminal damage at a gig in Cambridge, UK.

During a show by Toby Keith at the Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center, Pikeville, Kentucky, USA, a concert-goer throws a beer at the stage. Keith jumps off the stage and confronts the offender, who is evicted from the venue shortly after.

Dwain Kyles and Calvin Hollins, owners of the E2 nightclub, Chicago, Illinois, USA, are jailed for two years. The sentences relate to the deaths of 21 people in the club in 2003 when panic ensued after security guards used pepper spray to break up a fight.

Police arrest three men in connection with the previous day's stabbing of two twenty-year-olds at the T In The Park Festival, Kinross, Scotland, UK.

The Killers headline the final night of the V Festival in Chelmsford, England, UK. During the day, members of One Direction are seen partying with singer/X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos and Caroline Flack. It is also during this event that Tulisa assaults celebrity blogger Savvas Morgan, who she believes to have been responsible for putting her sex tape online.

Samong "Avaejee" Traisattha, vocalist for the black metal band Surrender of Divinity, is stabbed to death in his home in Bagkok, Thailand, Asia. Subsequently, a Facebook user takes credit for the slaying, posting a photo of Samong

After his arraignment in court, Nick Carter of The Backstreet Boys bails himself out of Monroe County jail, Florida, USA. He had been charged with misdemeanour battery following an incident the night before in which he and his friend Michael Papayans were arrested by police outside the Hogs Breath Saloon in Key West, Florida, USA, because of an alleged violent conflict between the men and the saloon's security guards.

Alejandro "Jano" Fuentes, a singer who appeared on the Mexican version of The Voice in 2011, dies aged 45 after being shot multiple times in his car three days earlier in Chicago, Illinois, USA.