Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana (an industrial suburb of Chicago, Illinois) to a working-class family.

In August 1969, shortly before Michael turned 11, the Jackson 5 opened for Diana Ross at the L.A. Forum, and in December, they issued their debut album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5.

"Ben" is a number-one hit song recorded by the teenaged Michael Jackson for the Motown label. The song, the theme of a 1972 film of the same name, spent one week at the top of the U.S. pop chart. It also reached number-one on the Australian pop chart, spending eight weeks at the top spot. The song also later reached a peak of number seven on the British pop chart.

Off the Wall is the fifth studio album by pop musician Michael Jackson, released on Epic Records.

Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson.

"Billie Jean" is a dance-pop R&B song by late American recording artist Michael Jackson.

The dance gained worldwide popularity after Michael Jackson executed it during his performance of his song "Billie Jean" on the March 25, 1983, television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, and was considered his signature move. The moonwalk has since become one of the best known dance techniques in the world.

The record was released nearly five years after his last studio album. 20 years after its release, the album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, and shipped 8 million units in the United States. Bad is the first, and currently only album ever to feature five Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles.

LOS ANGELES -- Pop star Michael Jackson has been taken to UCLA Medical Center by ambulance suffering from cardiac arrest, fire officials confirm.

Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.