This Day In Music - December 27 (Billboard.com)

http://billboard.com/bbcom/thisday/index.jsp

2003 - Vestal Goodman, the "Queen of Gospel Music," dies in Celebration, Fla., of the flu. She is 74. Goodman rose to fame in the '50s, performing with husband Howard "Happy" Goodman and his brothers as the Happy Goodman Family. The group, which recorded three indie albums before starting a 25-year relationship with Word's Canaan Records, was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998

1999 - Sean "Puffy" Combs is arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon when a gun is found in his vehicle after he leaves a chaotic scene at a New York club where three people are shot. Jennifer Lopez, who is with him at the time of the arrest, is questioned and released. The following day, Combs (and his lawyer) meet with the press to deny any involvement in the shooting.

1999 - Diva Zappa, the late Frank Zappa's 20-year-old daughter, releases her first record to radio. The single, titled "When the Ball Drops," is "basically... about my hunt for someone to make out with for the millennium," Zappa explains.

1998 - Busta Rhymes - a.k.a. Trevor Smith - is arrested and charged with criminal possession after police find a loaded unregistered pistol in his car. Police originally pull Rhymes over for changing lanes three times without signaling.

1997 - Music industry veteran Ewart G. Abner dies at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles after a bout with respiratory illness. He is 74. Abner began his career in Chicago in 1948, pressing 78s. He founded Chance Records the following year. His diverse tour of the music industry at large brought him to Vee Jay Records, as well as Motown. He was instrumental in the careers of Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross & The Supremes, the Temptations and others.

1997 - U.K. artist Mark Morrison is arrested outside the Pink Coconut nightclub in central Derby. The singer is convicted of threatening an off-duty police officer with an electric stun gun.

1992 - Grammy-winning singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr. is arrested at New York's Kennedy Airport after guards discover a 9mm pistol in his carry-on luggage.

1981 - Songwriter Hoagy Carmichael dies of a heart attack at the age of 82.

1973 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: "Time in a Bottle," Jim Croce. The song is released as a single after Croce dies in a plane crash.

1964 - The Supremes make their first appearance on TV's "Ed Sullivan Show."

1963 - The Animals perform on their first radio broadcast, the BBC show "Saturday Club."

1947 - Drummer Peter Criss (Peter Crisscoula) of Kiss is born in Brooklyn, N.Y.

1944 - Mick Jones of Foreigner is born in London.

1914 - Concert promoter Ivan Sutton is born.