For his birthday today we remember the late Mick Ronson, who was a force in rock and roll as a session guitarist, best remembered for his work on some classic David Bowie albums.

Born in 1946, Michael “Mick” Ronson hailed from England and bounced around local bands in his youth in the 1960s before he finally hit pay dirt landing a gig with Elton John, playing guitar on his “Madman Across the Water” song from John’s Tumbleweed Connection sessions. That song remained unreleased and later became the name of an Elton John album, but it put Ronson in more of a high profile in the music community as a result. Following this, he crossed paths with David Bowie and was the lead guitarist on Bowie’s records The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, and Bowie’s 1972 breakthrough release The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars. Ronson was one of the Spiders From Mars and his guitar sound lent as much to the Bowie glam rock/hard rock/early punk sound that has been often associated with Bowie throughout that time.

The ashes of the late James Doohan, who played “Scotty” in the original Star Trek series, were successfully launched into space this week, nearly seven year’s after the actor’s death. You can watch a video of the liftoff here below.

Doohan died on July 20, 2005, at the age of 85 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and then pneumonia. It was Doohan’s final wish to have his cremated remains launched into space after his death. The launch was originally scheduled for 2006, but was moved to 2008, but that attempt failed.

On Tuesday, a second attempt was scheduled by SpaceX, which was successful, making the U.S. company the first commercial entity to send its own spacecraft toward the International Space Station. According to Sky News, Doohan’s remains were launched from the craft’s cargo-bearing Dragon capsule and also contained the ashes of over 300 people, including those of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper.

The great Queen of Disco music, Donna Summer, passed away today in Florida at the age of 63 after a battle with lung cancer. TMZ was the first to report the news, which was later confirmed by Summer’s family.

Regardless of one’s opinion of her music, her style, or what one thinks of disco music in general, there is no denying that in her passing, comes an end of an era, an era which started in the post-Watergate 1970s, of fun escapism, of having a good times without pretenses, an era which continues to this day with the type of music where one doesn’t have to think about or absorb its tenets, and just simply allows oneself to have a enjoyable excursion with it.

Maurice Sendak, the author best known for the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, passed away today in in Danbury, CT, at the age of 83. According to the NY Times, Sendak died from complications from a recent stroke.

Where the Wild Things Are was introduced into the cinematic world via Spike Jones’ adaptation of the beloved children’s novel in 2009. But the author was also known for novels such as Outside Over There and In the Night Kitchen. Sendak’s stories have touched people of all ages and his passing is a great loss in the literary world.

Though Sendak has written many stories, he is best known for Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963. But it was no ordinary children’s book, it was a story that explored the sensations and dangers of a fantasy in a manner that was effective towards a reader of any age. Basically it told children that adults also have dreams.

Yet another death in the musical world has beset upon us. One of the founders of the legendary music trio The Beastie Boys has passed. Adam Yauch, best known as MCA to fans of the Caucasian hip hop band, died after a battle with cancer, from a complication of a tumor found in his salivary gland, reports Rolling Stone. He was 48.

The Beastie Boys, comprised of Yauch, along with Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz, carved their own niche during the tail end of rap music’s first wave. Starting as a hardcore punk band in 1979, the Brooklyn, NY-based group became best known as the goofy nonsensically yet no-nonsense hip hop mavens who exploded in a huff of success with their 1986 release License to Ill. That record, and its accompanying single and perpetually run MTV video of “Fight For Your Right (To Party)”, put them as equal cohorts with their peers and like-minded artists during that era in the rap/hip hop ring, even surpassing many of those other artists who explored similar styles and genres.