December 31, 1984: Rick Allen's Car Crash

December 31, 1984: Rick Allen, the drummer for British hard-rock band Def Leppard, is badly injured in a car crash, outside the hometown of most of the band's members, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Allen, himself from Dronfield, in Derbyshire, in the East Midlands, was thrown from his Chevrolet Corvette. He had a seat belt on. The belt did not restrain him. It did restrain his left arm, severing it.

Until this moment, Allen seemed to be living a charmed life with one of the biggest bands in the world. On his 15th birthday, November 1, 1978, he was admitted to the band, after responding to their classified ad for a new drummer. On his 16th birthday, they opened for one of the biggest rock bands in the world, AC/DC.

But at 21, his career seemed to be over. As lead singer Joe Elliott said, "If I lose my arm, I can still sing. If he loses his voice, he can still play drums." How can a drummer play drums with one arm?

Allen had a specially-rigged drum kit made by Whirlwind USA, whose cables allowed his left foot to play the parts his left hand would have. This setup made its debut on August 5, 1986, at the Monsters of Rock festival, at the Donington Park race track in Leicestershire, England. The band went on to have its biggest album, Hysteria, in 1987.

Def Leppard's guitarists, Phil Collin and Steve Clark, were known as "The Terror Twins." Clark died from excessive drinking in 1991. He was subsequently replaced by Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell. He, Allen, Elliott, Collin and bass guitarist Rick Savage (his real name, not a stage name) are still together in 2022.

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December 31, 1984 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between its Divisional Playoffs and its Conference Championships. There were 2 college football bowl games. Virginia beat Purdue, 27-24 in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. And West Virginia beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 31-14 in the Bluebonnet Bowl at the Astrodome in Houston.

There were no games played in the NBA, but there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Minnesota North Stars, 4-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 6-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Quebec Nordiques and their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, played to a 4-4 tie at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a 4-4 tie at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

October 23, 1995: Def Leppard Play 3 Concerts on 3 Continents in 30 Hours

Left to right: Rick Savage, Vivian Campbell,

Phil Collen, Rick Allen, Joe Elliott

October 23, 1995: English heavy metal band Def Leppard, having released their greatest hits album Vault, decided to mark the occasion by playing three acoustic shows on three different continents on the same day, as a special "Vaulting The World" publicity event.

"It was the band’s idea to do something weird and wacky," lead singer Joe Elliott said, as the band boarded a plane at London's Gatwick Airport ahead of the 2 hour, 45 minute flight to Tangier, Morocco in Africa for their first gig of the whirlwind tour at Hercules Cave. (The city is officially "Tangier," but "Tangiers" is sometimes also used.)

"We haven't actually had the chance to nail this person's head to a coffee table yet who actually came up with this three gigs in one day lark," Elliott later said. "But, I mean, it is a challenge, and we do like a bit of a challenge."

The quintet’s second gig took place at the Bottom Line club in West London, with Leppard playing "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix, "Ziggy Stardust" by David Bowie, and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones, along with their own hits "Animal," "Two Steps Behind" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

The same three covers, plus a set-closing run through T. Rex's "Bang A Gong (Get It On)," featured in the band’s final show of the day, at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. With that show starting at 10:45 PM local time, Leppard technically played their 3 shows in 30 hours. But, as the time difference meant it was 6:45 AM in London, the record of 3 concerts on 3 continents in 1 day was allowed to stand.

"The audience was stunning," Elliott said of the Vancouver crowd. "It was like Beatlemania, with people moshing - moshing! - during our acoustic set."

"Would we do it all again?" the singer asked, rhetorically, with the record in the bag. "Yes. Would I do it all again next week? No fucking way."

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October 23, 1995 was a Monday. It was an off-day between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series, which the Atlanta Braves would win in 6 games over the Cleveland Indians. On ABC Monday Night Football, the New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 27-14 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The NBA season started 11 days later. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-3 at the Montreal Forum. And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

July 21, 1987: Guns N' Roses Release "Appetite for Destruction"

July 21, 1987: Guns N' Roses Release their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. It established them as America's premier hard rock band. But that wouldn't last long.

The band brought together members of 3 established heavy metal bands in Los Angeles. From L.A. Guns came guitarist Jeffrey Dean Isbell, a.k.a. Izzy Stradlin. From Hollywood Rose came guitarist Saul Hudson, a.k.a. Slash. From Road Crew came bass guitarist Michael Andrew McKagan, a.k.a. Duff McKagan; and drummer Michael Coletti, a.k.a. Steven Adler. 

And singer William Bruce Rose Jr., a.k.a. Axl Rose, had been in Hollywood Rose; then, after they broke up, joined L.A. Guns; then, after Hollywood Rose re-formed, rejoined them.

Much like an earlier Los Angeles-based band, The Doors, a Guns N' Roses concert was unpredictable: You never knew when the lead singer was going to join with the others to give you a transcendent experience, or when he was going to start a riot, or whether he was going to show up drunk and unfit to perform, whether he was going to show up at all.

Between the booze, the drugs, the unreliability, and Axl's lyrics sometimes being racist, or misogynist, or homophobic, GN'R were the most controversial band of the late 1980s. But, with songs like the anthemic "Welcome to the Jungle" and the Number 1 hit "Sweet Child o' Mine," with Slash's unforgettable opening solo, they may also have been the best band of that period.

In 1989, Adler quit the band, and was replaced by Matt Sorum. It took them until 1991 to release their follow-up, but it was 2 albums at once: Use Your Illusion I, which had a cover of Paul McCartney's James Bond film theme, "Live and Let Die"; and Use Your Illusion II, which had a cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." (Neither Macca nor Ole Doc Zimmerman seemed to mind.) The album was predicted to be the Sgt. Pepper of heavy metal. It wasn't. It flopped.

In 1993, the band released The Spaghetti Incident? This album of covers was the band's last with Slash, McKagan and Sorum. For a while, it looked like it might be Axl's last release, period. He talked about releasing an album titled Chinese Democracy, and the running gag was about which would happen first: The release of the album, or actual democracy in China. Along with the Beach Boys' Smile and Prince's Black Album, it became a legendary unreleased album: Everyone presumed it had actually been recorded, at least partially, but nobody knew if or when it would ever be released.

While GN'R fans waited for Chinese Democracy, and waited, and waited... Slash, Duff and Matt formed a new band, Velvet Revolver, with Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland, and Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner. They released 2 albums: Contraband (clearly, a play on words) in 2004, leading to a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock performance for the song "Slither"; and Libertad in 2007.

Axl kept touring under the GN'R name, which he owned, but no one who went to a concert was, well, using their illusion: They knew it was just him. And he was making money off the name. But the success of Velvet Revolver showed that, like Mick Jagger with Keith Richards, Axl needed Slash a whole lot more than the other way around. The Doors' Jim Morrison died at age 27. His legend outlived him. Axl outlived his legend.

Finally, on November 23, 2008, after spending $13 million to put it together, making it the most expensive album ever made, in any genre of music, Axl released Chinese Democracy under the GN'R name. It was met with mild critical approval, and sold a little over 1 million copies. Had there been a fraction of the hype, it would have looked a lot better.

Axl, Slash and Duff swallowed their differences, and reunited for a tour that lasted from 2016 to 2019. Still, there hasn't been a real GN'R album since 1991.

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July 21, 1987 was a Tuesday. Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy was born. And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Yankees tied the game in the top of the 8th, but in the bottom of the 8th, future White Sox general manager Ken Williams brought Iván Calderón home with a sacrifice fly. Dave Winfield went 2-for-4 with an RBI, Don Mattingly went 3-for-5, and Rickey Henderson went 2-for-3.

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 7-5 at Shea Stadium. Glenn Davis hit a home run for the Astros, Gary Carter and Kevin McReynolds for the Mets.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Mike Fitzgerald singled Tim Raines home with the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 11-5 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-4.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Eddie Murray hit a home run. Cal Ripken went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. George Brett went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 13-9 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. A football score, for a football stadium.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angeles, 5-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Lou Whitaker won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 13-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 1-for-4. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 9-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.  Barry Bonds went 2-for-5 with his a home run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.