4 January – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is accused of arrogance by TV producers after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine of Your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.
12 January – Led Zeppelin's eponymous début album is released.
18 January – Pete Best wins his defamation lawsuit against The Beatles. Best had originally sought $8 million, but ended up being awarded much less.
30 January – The Beatles perform for the last time in public, on the roof of the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London. The performance, which is filmed for the Let It Be movie, is stopped early by police after neighbors complain about the noise.
3 February – John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hire Allen Klein as The Beatles' new business manager against the wishes of Paul McCartney.
4 February – Paul McCartney hires the law firm of Eastman & Eastman, Linda Eastman's father's law firm, as general legal counsel for Apple.
John Lennon officially changes his name from John Winston Lennon to John Winston Ono Lennon.
24 April – The Beatles make a $5.1 million counteroffer to the Northern Songs stockholders in an attempt to keep Associated TV from controlling the band's music.
2 June – John Lennon and Yoko Ono host a "Bed-In" at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The couple records the song "Give Peace a Chance" live in their suite with Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, and several others.
11 June – David Bowie releases the single "Space Oddity".
29 June – Bass player Noel Redding announces to the media that he has quit the Jimi Hendrix Experience, having effectively done so during the recording of Electric Ladyland.
3 July – Brian Jones is found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England, almost a month after leaving The Rolling Stones.
5 July – The Rolling Stones proceed with a free concert in Hyde Park, London as a tribute to Brian Jones; it is also the band's first concert with guitarist Mick Taylor. Estimates of the audience range from 250,000 to 400,000.
16 August – David Bowie stages the Growth Summer Festival, a free concert at Croydon Road Recreation Ground in Beckenham, south London.[3]
20 August – Final session for The Beatles' album Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios in London, the last time all four members of the band are present in a studio together.[4]
13 September – John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival 12-hour music festival, backed by Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White. It is Lennon's first public rock performance without one or more of The Beatles since meeting Paul McCartney in 1957. He decides before returning to Britain to leave The Beatles permanently.
26 September – The Beatles' album Abbey Road is released. It includes two songs written by George Harrison, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something".[5]
7 November – The Rolling Stones open their U.S. tour in Fort Collins, Colorado.
^Rehrig, William H.; Bierley, Paul E.; Hoe, Robert (1991). The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press. pp. 788–789. ISBN0-918048-08-7. Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.