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- Scottish composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper was born.
- Prince was at No. 1 on the R&B chart with the song “Let's Go Crazy.”
- Queen played the first of nine concerts at the Sun City Super Bowl in the then-Republic of Bophuthatswana. The Works Tour also brought older songs from their first three albums into the concert setlist.
- The Grateful Dead performed at the Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Brian Keenan, drummer of the Chambers Brothers, died at the age of 42 from a heart attack. He had previously played in England in the early lineup of Manfred Mann and was the drummer of the Chambers Brothers during the period of their hit “Time Has Come Today.”
- Midge Ure reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart with his first solo single, “If I Was.” It was his only solo chart-topper; Mark King of Level 42 played bass on the track.
- Nicola Roberts, a member of the English-Irish pop group Girls Aloud, was born.
- Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr began rehearsing with The Pretenders in preparation for their North American tour, on which the group was to support U2.
- American singer, cellist, and beatboxer Kevin Olusola, a member of the a cappella group Pentatonix, was born in Owensboro, Kentucky.
- Motley Crue played a warm-up concert before the Dr. Feelgood tour at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood under the pseudonym The Foreskins. The concert was also used for filming the music video for “Kickstart My Heart.”
- M.C. Hammer's album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em spent its 18th week at No. 1 on the album chart.
- Metallica began recording their self-titled album, also known as The Black Album.
- Paul Young spent his third consecutive week at No. 1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart with his cover of “Oh Girl” by The Chi-Lites.
- The Righteous Brothers had the week's highest-debuting song with “Unchained Melody,” 25 years after the song had first become a major hit.
- Bryan Adams reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart with his sixth studio album Waking Up the Neighbours. The album included the hit “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” which spent a record 16 weeks at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart.
- Guns N' Roses debuted at the top two positions of the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart. Use Your Illusion II was No. 1 and Use Your Illusion I was No. 2. Use Your Illusion II began a two-week run at No. 1; it was released on September 17, 1991, together with Use Your Illusion I and had sold 5,587,000 copies in the United States by 2010.
- Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch featuring Loleatta Holloway reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 with the song Good Vibrations.
- Michael Jackson walked Elizabeth Taylor down the aisle at her seventh wedding ceremony at Jackson's Neverland Ranch. The groom was construction worker Larry Fortensky, whom Taylor divorced in 1997.
- American singer Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations died in Birmingham, Alabama, at the age of 52 from lung cancer, a year after having one lung removed. He sang lead vocals on “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Get Ready,” and “Just My Imagination.” As a solo artist, he had several hits in the 1970s, including the U.S. No. 1 single “Keep On Truckin’” and the song “Boogie Down.”
- Prince and the New Power Generation released the home video Diamonds and Pearls.
- Spin Doctors released their first single, “Little Miss Can't Be Wrong.”
- Glenn Frey underwent surgery on his colon because of pain caused by inflammation, which forced the Eagles to postpone their reunion tour.
- Jamie Walters, who sang the theme song “How Do You Talk To An Angel?” for the series The Heights, joined Beverly Hills 90210 as Ray Pruit, an aspiring musician. His character began abusing the popular character Donna Martin, which also had a negative impact on Walters' real-life music career.
- Celine Dion reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with her fourteenth studio album Falling into You. The album reached No. 1 in thirteen countries and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
- The first Concert to Benefit the Pedro Zamora Foundation was held. Performers included Joan Osborne, Soul Asylum, Jewel, Extra Fancy, The Presidents of the United States of America, and Dog's Eye View, along with other artists. The proceeds were intended to educate children about AIDS. Pedro Zamora had died two years earlier from an AIDS-related illness and had been a cast member of MTV's The Real World: San Francisco.
- “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by American band Deep Blue Something reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart on October 5, 1996. In the United States, the song reached No. 5, and its title refers to the classic 1961 Audrey Hepburn film Breakfast at Tiffany's.
- Neal McCoy and his wife Melinda held a concert at Longview High School Coliseum in Longview, Texas, raising $150,000 for the East Texas Angel Network. Bryan White, Troy Aikman, Joe Avezzano and Bob Kingsley also contributed. The organization provided financial assistance to families with seriously ill children for medical treatment and related expenses.
- Arthur Tracy, known as The Street Singer, died at the age of 98.
- Garth Brooks fans bought more than 139,000 tickets in less than four hours, selling out eight concerts at Rosemont Horizon in Chicago.
- The U.S. Supreme Court refused to dismiss composer Ray Repp's lawsuit against Andrew Lloyd Webber. Repp claimed that Webber's composition Phantom Song from the musical The Phantom of the Opera copied his 1978 composition Till You. The dispute began with a lawsuit filed in 1990.
- In a music poll by London's Time Out magazine ranking the greatest stars of the previous 30 years, David Bowie came in first. The Beatles were second, Bob Marley third, James Brown fourth, and Marvin Gaye fifth.
- HBO premiered Janet Jackson's new music video “Every Time.” The premiere took place shortly before the evening broadcast of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and served as a preview for the premiere of the live concert special Janet: The Velvet Rope from Madison Square Garden.
- Paul McCartney released the album Run Devil Run, his first album following the death of Linda McCartney in April 1998. The album combined early rock 'n' roll covers with new original songs and reached No. 27 in the US and No. 12 in the UK.
- Prince released the single “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold.”
- Roger Daltrey announced the reunion of The Who after their 1983 breakup and their comeback concert in Las Vegas on October 29. The concert was heavily promoted by technology startup Pixelon and was intended to be broadcast live over the internet, but the transmission failed due to technical problems. The concert itself was filmed and later released on DVD as The Vegas Job.
- The series Gilmore Girls premiered on The WB, featuring a new version of Carole King's “Where You Lead” as its theme song, performed by King with her daughter Louise Goffin.
- The Beatles released their autobiography. The book contained 350,000 words, cost £35 and, according to the publishers, had more than 1.5 million orders worldwide; shops in Japan and the UK opened at midnight in anticipation of demand.
- The British television program Top of the Pops published a Top 40 ranking of the singles that had spent the longest time on the UK chart. At No. 1 was Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, followed by She Loves You by The Beatles at No. 2 and My Way by Frank Sinatra at No. 3.
- After several months of disputes over child support, rapper Eminem's divorce proceedings were officially finalized.
- The television series Reba premiered on the WB. Reba McEntire played a single mother of three children. The series ran for six seasons.
- Disturbed reached No. 1 on the U.S. Albums Chart with their second studio album Believe. The album also reached No. 1 in New Zealand.
- Kelly Clarkson's “A Moment Like This” moved from No. 52 to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, setting a record at the time for the biggest jump to the top. The previous record was held by The Beatles with “Can't Buy Me Love,” which jumped from No. 27 to No. 1. Maroon 5 surpassed the record in 2007. Kelly Clarkson also reached No. 1 on both the Canadian and U.S. singles charts.
- Mick Jagger donated £100,000 to his former secondary school in Dartford to fund a music director and the purchase of musical instruments.
- Will Young and Gareth Gates reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart with their versions of The Long and Winding Road and Suspicious Minds.
- Beyoncé began a nine-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Baby Boy.” The single remained at the top one week longer than “Crazy in Love” and at the time became her longest-running No. 1 hit.
- Irish singer and songwriter Damien Rice won the third annual Shortlist Music Prize. The ceremony culminated in a four-and-a-half-hour concert at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, featuring Rice and seven of the nine nominees. The award was conceived as an American equivalent of the UK's Mercury Prize and recognized progressive artists whose latest albums had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination.