December 1
1966: The Mamas & Papas, featuring Canadian Denny Doherty earn their fourth straight gold record for CASS, JOHN, MICHELLE AND DENNY.

1968: Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash shack up together, moving into "Our House" on Laurel Canyon's Lookout Mountain Road.

1981: Bob & Doug McKenzie host Saturday Night Live.

1995: Calling themselves Canadian Recording Artists for Copyright Reform, Bryan Adams, Tom Cochrane, Bruce Cockburn, Celine Dion, KD Lang, Anne Murray, Oscar Peterson, Rush, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Michelle Wright send a letter to Prime Minister Jean Chretien, urging swfit passage of revisions to the Copyright Act.

1997: William Smith, vocalist and keyboard player for Motherlode, suffers a fatal heart attack at the age of 53. The Canadian group hit #18 on the Billboard Pop chart in 1969 with "When I Die".

December 2
1957: "Daddy Cool," peaks at #36 on the Canadian charts. There's two versions in that spot at the same time, one by The Diamonds, one by The Rays.

1972: After a show at the Montreal Forum, members of The Who, along with some of their friends, spend the night in jail for causing over $6,000 worth of destruction in their hotel.

1978: Nelly Furtado is born.

December 4
1957: Mercury Records releases The Diamonds' version of "The Stroll". The song will peak at #4 on the Billboard chart and spark a dance craze of the same name.

1970: The classic rock album, SUPRESSION, a recorded jam session with Mike Bloomfield of Electric Flag, Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Steven Stills of Buffalo Springfield is certified gold.

1976: A year after leaving The Guess Who, lead singer Burton Cummings is awarded a gold record for his million selling US top ten solo hit, "Stand Tall".

1977: Dallas Smith, vocalist for Default is born in Langley, BC.

December 5
1946: Andy Kim is born in Montreal as Andrew Youakim.

1964: Lorne Green becomes the second Canadian (after Paul Anka) to have a number one hit on the Billboard singles chart, when his spoken word recording about a Western gun fighter named "Ringo" reached the top. It made it to #22 in the UK. The former CBC news reporter and star of TV's hit shows "Bonanza" and "Battlestar Galactica" would go on to record seven albums for RCA.

1984: Andrea Martin and Joe Flaherty host the annual Juno Awards in Toronto.

December 6
1957: Mercury Records releases The Diamonds' version of "The Stroll". The song eventually peaks at #4 on the Billboard chart and spark a dance craze of the same name.

1994: LIVE LIVE LIVE, a live concert album recorded in front of an audience, is released by Bryan Adams.

1995:Joni Mitchell is presented with the Century Award at the Billboard Music Awards.

December 7
1941: Mahogany Rush drummer Jim Ayoub is born.

1964: RPM Weekly Magazine conducts the first survey of Canadians' favourite homegrown music, with a poll that got an astounding 150 responses.

December 8
1999: Investigators search 24 restaurants belonging to a chain founded by Celine Dion and her husband. The chain was suspected of using gadgets that allow restaurants' registers to avoid making cash sales and declaring them on tax returns.

December 9
1943: Rick Danko of The Band is born in Simcoe, ON.

1978: The Blues Brothers, featuring SNL actors John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd and a band consisting mostly of Canadians, the SNL Band, release their version of Sam & Dave's "Soul Man." The re-released version reached 14 on the Billboard charts.

1997: Bryan Adams becomes the latest artist to do an MTV Unplugged lp.

December 10
1999: Rick Danko of The Band dies in his sleep in Woodstock, NY, the day after his 56th birthday.

2005: Next to no one shows up at a Harlequin show in Cold Lake, AB.

December 12
1997: Trooper re-releases THICK AS THIEVES and KNOCK 'EM DEAD KID on CD in the US on Uni Discs.

2002: Gordon Lightfoot is released from a Hamilton, Ontario hospital more than three months after undergoing emergency stomach surgery there.

December 13
1971: David Clayton-Thomas lends his support to the 'Save The Seals Campaign', appearing on a TV ad banning the annual hunt.

1987: Corey Hart's Montreal Forum performance from that September is shown on the CBC.

1997: Kurt Winter, former Brother and Guess Who guitarist dies of kidney failure.

1998: Bob Clarke, guitarist for Club 69 Rebels, a late 50's, early 60's Edmonton based band with Wes Dakus died.

2001: Lee Aaron plays her last rock show in Lac La Biche, AB. In the lineup are Bernie Aubin on drums, and guitarist Tony D, both of The Headpins.

2002: Zal Yanovsky of The Lovin' Spoonful dies of a heart attack.December 14
1904: Wilf Carter is born in Port Hilford, NS

1972: FOR THE ROSES, Joni Mitchell's first album for David Geffen's new Asylum label, is released. It reaches #11 and "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio" is a minor hit single.

1974: 'Miles of Aisles', a live double album documenting Joni Mitchell's tour in the wake of COURT AND SPARKS is released. It is recorded during four-night stand in August 1974 and finds her backed by Tom Scott and the L.A. Express.

December 15
1989: "See the Light," a one-hour Global TV special on The Jeff Healey Band airs.

2005: Lee Aaron's second jazz album is released. SLICK CHICK features The Swingin' Barflies as her backup band.

December 16
1969: While at the Toronto Peace Festival, John Lennon and the Oriental Harlotte hang out and smoke a few at Ronnie Hawkins' pad in rural Ontario.

1994: The Pope rocks out, as Sarah McLachlan takes part in the Christmas At The Vatican concert.

1999: The world yawns when it's reported that Celine Dion has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. In other breaking news … her albums LET'S TALK ABOUT LOVE and FALLING INTO YOU have also shipped more than 10 million copies each.

December 17
1961: Garth Hudson joins Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel in the Hawks, who serve as Arkansas rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins' backup band. Later they redub themselves The Band.

1977: DECADE, a triple-album greatest hits by Neil Young he personally assembled is released.

1994: Celine Dion marries her manager Rene Angelil in Montreal.

2002: Randy Bachman releases EVERY SONG HAS A STORY on DVD, a quaint, personal unplugged session in a Toronto nightclub from earlier that year, where he plays both The Guess Who and BTO classics.

December 18
1992: Toronto's CFRA just notices the lyrics to The Beatles' song, "Run For Your Life." Station reps say the lyrics "I'd rather see you dead little girl, than to be with another man" promotes violence against women and bans the track from its playlist, three decades after its release.

Dec 19
1944: Zal Yanovsky is born in Toronto,ON

1957: Doug Johnson, keyboardist for Loverboy is born.

December 20
1962: Ray Coburn, keyboardist for Honeymoon Suite is born in Niagara Falls.

1974: Rush open for KISS for the first time. The show is in Michigan Palace in Detroit, MI.

December 21
1951: Nick Gilder of Sweeney Todd is born in London, England.

1976: Lukas Rossi, winner of the "Rock Star Supernova" TV contest is born.

December 22
1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono meet with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to discuss drug abuse. They'd been hanging out with Ronnie Hawkins at his ranch for the past few days.

December 25
1955: The Diamonds make their debut, singing at a Christmas party in a Toronto church.

1958: Alannah Myles is born in Toronto.

2006: Dan's wife makes him the happiest man alive when she buys the Rush DVD collection REPLAY X 3 for Christmas, especially when she surprises him with the RUSH IN RIO DVD as well.

December 26
1945: Martin Fisher, pianist for Bobby Kris & The Imperials is born in Vancouver, BC.

1984: Ron Tabak, original singer for Prism dies of a brain hemhorrage following a bicycle accident in Vancouver days earlier.

December 27
1948: Steppenwolf guitarist Larry Byrom is born.

December 28
1964: The results from RPM Weekly Magazine's unofficial poll are printed, the first time any sort of 'top artists' has been done on Canadian music. The winners are listed on the front page.

December 29
2000: A US federal appeals court rules that bassist Nicholas Kussbaum can continue to bill himself as a former member of Steppenwolf. John Kay had invoked a 1980 contract in which Kussbaum agreed not to emphasize his ties with the band.

December 30
1949: Producer Bruce Fairbairn (KISS, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Loverboy) is born.

1957: "The Stroll," by The Diamonds is released. It peaks at #4 in the US and sparks a dance craze by the same name.

December 31
1947: Burton Cummings is born in Winnipeg, MB

1971: Bob Dylan interrupts The Band's New Year's Eve concert at the New York Academy of Music, performing "Down In The Flood," "When I Paint My Masterpiece," "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Don't Ya Tell Henry" with them. The show becomes The Band's ROCK OF AGES album.

1972: Paul Hoffert plays his last show with Lighthouse in Toronto, until their brief reunion a few years later.

1983: The British release of the Roman Grey EP "Body Shock" and "Shakedown" hits the stores.

1984: Bryan Adams takes time from the middle of an extensive North American tour to co-host MTV's New Year's Eve Bash.

2000: FOOTPRINTS VOLUME 2 by A Foot In Cold Water is released in the US.