Aaliyah Dana Haughton

1979: Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born, on January 16th.





1986: Made her stage debut at age seven as an orphan in the Gesu Catholic School production of "Annie." Rehearsals were three hours a day, four days a week and sometimes on weekends and holidays. Audiences were so large, they eventually had to be moved to Marygrove College. Aaliyah also appeared in their production of "Hello Dolly," and was a big attraction.





1989: At age nine, Aaliyah appeared on television's Star Search, where she sang My Funny Valentine, dedicated to her mom.





1991: Gladys Knight, then married to Aaliyah's uncle Barry Hankerson (founder of Blackground Records), invited Aaliyah to perform with her in Las Vegas during a five-night stint. She was then 11.





1992: Aaliyah was introduced to producer/singer R. Kelly.





1994: At age 15, Aaliyah went gold with her debut album "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, a collaboration highly influenced by Kelly. The two allegedly became involved and then married on August 31, 1994 at the Sheraton Gateway Suites in Rosemont, IL. Kelly (then 27) and Aaliyah were married by the Rev. Nathan J. Edmond of Chicago, according to the marriage certificate filed with the Cook County clerk. Aaliyah lied about her age, signing the marriage certificate as an 18 year old, she admitted later in court documents. A Michigan judge went on to annul the marriage. She went on to tour the world at this time in support of her debut, eventually returning home to her Performing Arts studies, majoring in dance.





1996: After several collaborations (with Kris Kross, among others) and recording Are You Ready? for the Sunset Park soundtrack, Aaliyah released her second album, One In A Million. She was influenced by Jermaine Dupri and Timbaland, most notably, the latter, with whom she would collaborate for the duration of her career. This album contained the number one single, If Your Girl Only Knew. After only 10 months, the album was certified double platinum, spawning the hits "Four Page Letter," "Hot Like Fire" and "The One I Gave My Heart To."





1997: Aaliyah recorded singles for the Anastasia and Dr. Doolittle (1998) soundtracks.





1998: Aaliyah performed performed Journey to the Past from Anastasia at the Academy Awards telecast, making her one of the youngest to ever perform an Oscar-nominated song in the production's history.





1999: She was nominated for a Grammy Award for the song "Are You That Somebody."





2000: Aaliyah starred in the film Romeo Must Die, alongside martial arts legend Jet-Li. Again, she was nominated for a Grammy, this time for the song "Try Again" off the movie's soundtrack, for which she was executive producer. She won the role as Zee in The Matrix, sequels and filmed vampire flick Queen of the Damned, based on the Anne Rice novel.





2001: Aaliyah released her third, eponymous album on July 17th, which debuted at Number Two on the Billboard charts.