On October 3, 1849, a distraught, disheveled and semi-conscious Edgar Allan Poe was brought in a carriage to the Washington University Hospital of Baltimore (also called the Washington College Hospital; later known as Church Home or Church Hospital). Four days later on October 7, 1849, Poe was dead at the age of 40.

The circumstances surrounding Poe's death are extremely mysterious. Many theories exist to rationalize Poe's condition: hypoglycemia, depression, drug-induced hallucinations, and conspiratorial murder plots have all been proposed as potential death knells by his biographers.

Poe's own attending physician in his final days, Dr. John J. Moran, proved to be more successful in capitalizing on those last moments of interaction with Poe than actually caring for him as a patient. His accounts of Poe's condition and actions during those last days became more embellished as Moran hit the lecture circuit.

In 1853, several attempts were made to burn down Washington University Hospital by residents of the neighborhood. Apparently, they had grown tired of the hospital's reputation for digging up bodies from the cemetery down the street for dissection.

A hospital worker recalled, "It was said there had been people kidnapped and taken in there which made Washington College a horror to the people in the city of Baltimore. After the sun went down you hardly ever saw a person anywhere near it."

Today, a new housing complex called Broadway Overlook has been built on the former grounds of the hospital. According to The Dome (a John Hopkins Medicine periodical), the room where Poe died is currently occupied.

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On May 11, 1965, Johnny Cash was arrested in Starkville, Mississippi for what he described as "pickin' flowers." The official charge was public drunkenness, and Johnny Cash spent the night in the Starkville City Jail (now known as Oktibbeha County Jail). While in the jail cell, Cash kicked the wall so hard that he broke his toe. He was fined $36 and released the next morning.

The NY Times recounted a near mythical experience of Smokey Evans that night. Smokey claims that when he was 15 and drunk, he was thrown in the same cell as Cash. After Johnny broke his toe, he gave Smokey his black shoes and said: "Here’s a souvenir. I’m Johnny Cash." Evans left the shoes to his nephew in his will.

The experience was immortalized in the song "Starkville City Jail" which was recorded on the At San Quentin live album. Johnny Cash was arrested in seven different cities, but only Starkville warranted its own song.

Since that fateful day, the town of Starkville has periodically held the Pardon Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival to celebrate the Man in Black's brush with the law for drunken horticulture.

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Louis C.K. shot the stand-up interludes for his tv show Louie at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. If you want to eat like he does in the show's opening, you can stuff your face with a slice at Ben's Pizzeria around the corner on 3rd Street and MacDougal.

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The Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion Tour was one of the longest rock tours ever lasting 28 months from the beginning of 1991 until mid-1993. An hour and a half into their July 2, 1991 show at the Riverport Amphitheater west of St. Louis, Axl Rose repeatedly told security to confiscate the camera of someone in the front. When they didn't he dived into the crowd and then threw down the mic when he returned to the stage, ending the show and kicking off a riot in the new venue that had only been open for less than one month.

It wasn't until after GNR returned from the Europe leg of their tour the following year that Axl was arrested on assault and property damage charges. A second riot took place in 1992 after a show in Montreal when the band was on tour with Metallica and Faith No More.

Watch footage of the St. Louis incident here.

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In 1957, Satellite Records was formed by Jim Stewart in his wife's uncle's garage in North Memphis, TN. By 1961, Stewart's sister had mortgaged her house to pay for recording equipment, and the name had changed to Stax Records.

The studio moved into the abandoned Capitol Theater on McLemore Ave, and a group of neighborhood kids began playing on records regularly, becoming Booker T. and the MGs (the house band at Stax for 8 years). In 1962, the same year they came out with "Green Onions," Otis Redding had joined Stax Records.

In 1965, Sam & Dave joined Stax and with the help of song-writer Isaac Hayes (theme from Shaft, South Park's Chef) put out a string of hits including "I Take What I Want," "Soul Man," and "Hold On, I'm Coming."

In 1967, tragedy struck the Stax family when Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays crashed into Lake Monona, WI.

Today, the Stax Museum is open to the public, supporting a number of music programs in the Memphis area.

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