On This Day In Michael Jackson HIStory - January 15th
1971- The Jackson 5 attend the Salute to Muhammad Ali charity held at Hollywood Palladium, to raise money for the Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade
1973- The Jackson 5 are recording "Melodie", for Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan. The song "Melodie" was recorded but it remained unreleased until it appeared newly mixed on Michael's album, Farewell My Summer Love
1976- Michael & his brothers had all given their sworn depositions in their counter-suit against Motown records.
1997- Michael stayed two weeks in the Tower Suite at the Fairmont Montreux Palace in Montreux, Switzerland to complete work on his album, Blood On The Dance Floor. Reportedly Michael worked every day, and went to the Mountain Studios where he recorded the album & "Elizabeth I Love You"
During his stay in Montreux, Michael wanted to acquire the house owned by the Chaplin family, former long-time residence of Charlie Chaplin, but his offer to buy the property was declined by the heirs of the famous artist
1999- Michael attends the Bar Mitzvah of the son of his friends, Dean & Darren Cohen
“We only knew he was coming an hour before his arrival,” said Rabbi Siggi Suchard, who officiated at the service.
“I was introduced to Michael Jackson before the service. I found him very polite and quiet. He was given a yarmulka, which he wore, but not a tallis,” Suchard said.
“We were totally surprised,” said one guest. “But there was so much extra security at the shul and a great deal of secrecy surrounding the arrangements that I suspected something was going to happen.”
According to guests, there appears to be a genuine closeness between Michael and the family, so much so that Jackson made a special trip to South Africa for the Bar Mitzvah.
After the service, Michael's children were taken home, while he attended the celebration at a local hotel.
“He danced the hora, the train and other traditional dances,” said a guest. “He shook hands with all the children and signed autographs.”
The musicians Skippy and Doug, Eyal Shaked and Douglas Watt, who were hired for the party were “somewhat unnerved” by Jackson’s presence.
“It’s kind of like you are a fine artist, hired to paint a ceiling, and Michelangelo walks in. But he was really very nice. We sang the American national anthem for him. When I apologized for making a mistake with a couple of the words, as I hadn’t known he was coming, he laughed and reassured me", said Shaked.
“Then with my chutzpah, I invited him to sing with our band — but he answered very graciously that he’d rather just listen and dance.”
Michael was reportedly one of the last to leave
2001- Dame Elizabeth Taylor talks about Michael in an exclusive interview with Larry King
LARRY KING: The friendship with Michael Jackson.
DAME ELIZABETH: Yes?
LARRY KING: What? And how did that begin? Well I mean, you seem on different planes
DAME ELIZABETH: No! Why do you say that?
LARRY KING: You just seem on different planes. He's a very shy...
DAME ELIZABETH: No. We were both child stars.
LARRY KING: OK.
DAME ELIZABETH: We had no childhood, either one of us. We were brought up by tutors. We had no children of our own age to play with or relate to. We were performing the whole time. He was on the stage; I was on the...
LARRY KING: The screen.
DAME ELIZABETH: ... the soundstage. We would go home. I, in my case, I would learn my lines, learn my homework, get up early in the morning. I would go out to the polo field, where they had 40 jumps set up, and to get some of my steam off as a little girl I would take 40 jumps before I would go into work.
LARRY KING: And he had the same kind of life, in a sense. He had to get up and take the bus to wherever they went to the next concert or...
DAME ELIZABETH: Yes and get his steam off dancing.
LARRY KING: But we don't -- we know you. Look at you. We don't know Michael, do we?
DAME ELIZABETH: No.
LARRY KING: What don't we know about him we should know?
DAME ELIZABETH: He's so tender. He is so compassionate. He hurts, literally pains for other people's suffering. If there is -- like -- the starvation of children in this country, in India, in Africa...
LARRY KING: He feels it. It's not just a...
DAME ELIZABETH: He reaches out. I've been to the Orient with him. And he says: "Roll down the window! Roll down the window!" He reaches his hands out and just touches a baby's face. Oh, you beautiful thing, and he just wants to give that baby everything, his life. He'd give him all his money if he could, and the car keeps on moving. And he'll turn back: Oh, look at that baby.
https://archive.org/details/LarryKingLive20010115ElizabethTaylor
2002- Love Songs, a compilation album of 14 love songs & ballads that Michael recorded during his Motown tenure, was released by Motown as a part of their Love Songs line
2003- Michael pays his last respect to Bee Gee's Maurice Gibb. Michael is among the mourners where a service is held in Riverside Funeral Chapel, Miami Beach, Florida, for Maurice Gibb who passed away on January 12th. An hour after the official funeral Barry and Michael went to the coffin to honor Maurice for the last time
https://reddit.com/link/1i1vw71/video/wdh3rm0vkzce1/player
2004- Michael's video, Number Ones, was certified Gold and Platinum by the RIAA
2004- Geragos announces that Michael & him have hired top criminal layer Benjamin Brafman.
2004- Gloria Allred asks the Department of Child & Family Services of Los Angeles to remove Michael’s children from his care.