Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana.

Jackson began performing with his four brothers in the pop
group the Jackson 5 when he was a child. The group scored
its first No. 1 single in 1969, with “I Want You Back.” By age
11, Jackson was appearing on TV, and by age 14 he had
released his first solo album.

A Jackson 5 TV cartoon series appeared in the early ’70s, and
in 1976 the Jackson family, including sister Janet Jackson,
launched a TV variety show called The Jacksons that ran for
one season. Throughout the 70s, media attention focused on
Michael, who piped vocals in his high voice for “ABC,” “I’ll Be
There,” and many other Top 20 hits.

      
CAMILLE BOHANNON

On June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson, one of the most
commercially successful entertainers in history, died
at the age of 50 at his home in Los Angeles, California,
after suffering from cardiac arrest caused by a fatal
combination of drugs given to him by his personal
doctor.

In late 1993, Michael Jackson proposed to Lisa Marie Presley,
the daughter of Elvis Presley, over the phone. They married
in La Vega, Dominican Republic, in May 1994 by civil judge
Hugo Francisco Álvarez Pérez. The tabloid media speculated
that the wedding was a publicity stunt to deflect away from
Jackson’s sexual abuse allegations and jump-start Presley’s
career as a singer.

On May 26, 1994, 20 days after her divorce from Keough,
Presley married singer Michael Jackson.

Long before his stature in the world of show business earned
him the nickname “Chairman of the Board,” Frank Sinatra was
known simply as “The Voice.”

Francis Sinatra died of a heart attack on May 14, 1998, at the
age of 82 with his immediate family by his side at Cedars-
Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Six days later, some 400 mourners attended his private funeral
at the Roman Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly
Hills, with thousands more lining the streets outside.