The China Mail - The Rolling Stones in dates

- July 12, 1962: a young band called "The Rollin' Stones" gives its first concert at the Marquee Club, one of London's top jazz venues.

- 1964: their first album, "The Rolling Stones" is a big hit in Britain.

- 1965: "(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction" comes out, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and catapults the band into the big time. The song has since been widely covered by artists from Aretha Franklin to Britney Spears.

- 1967: after a seizure of amphetamines at Richards' home, he and Jagger are handed prison sentences that are later cancelled after a popular outcry.

- July 3, 1969: erratic, drugs-using guitarist Brian Jones, one of the band's founding members, drowns in his swimming pool at the age of 27 shortly after the band fired him.

- December 6, 1969: a teenager is stabbed to death at a chaotic free concert headlined by the Stones in Altamont, California. The gruesome murder, caught on camera, is seen as symbolising the end of the "peace and love" 60s.

- 1970: one of the most recognisable in the music industry, the Rolling Stones' logo of ruby red lips is created by a London design student for the poster of the band's European tour. Over the years it appears on countless band memorabilia. In 2008 the Victoria and Albert Museum buys the original drawings.

- 1985: Jagger releases a solo album "She's the Boss", sparking a war between the singer and Richards, who says he should be focussing on the band. He responds with his own solo record "Talk is Cheap" (1988).

- 1995: Microsoft pays several millions of dollars for the rights to use the Stones; song "Start Me Up" for the first Windows ad campaign.

- February 8, 2006: over 1 million fans throng Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro for a free gig during the group's "A Bigger Bang" tour

- March 25, 2016: the Stones become the first Western band to perform on the communist island of Cuba, with a free gig in Havana.

- 2022: they mark their 60th anniversary with a tour through Europe, but without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021.

- September 6, 2023: launch of their new album "Hackney Diamonds" at an event in east London.

G.Tsang--ThChM