the rise and fall of the king of pop

the rise and fall of the king of pop

Here are Jackson's highlights, lowlights and subsequent aftermath of his death:

THE RISE:

:: 1958 – Jackson is born on August 26 in Gary, Indiana.

:: 1963 – He gives his first public performance aged five singing Climb Every Mountain.

:: 1964 – He joins his brothers in The Jackson Five who sign to Motown Records in 1968.

:: 1979 – Teams up with Quincey Jones to release Off The Wall, his first album with Epic and his first solo album as an adult recording artist.

:: 1982 – Thriller is released, an album which would eventually become the world's best-selling album of all-time. The smash hit yields seven top-10 singles.

:: 1985 – Jackson reportedly pays $47 million for the publishing rights to the Beatles' back catalogue.

:: 1987 – He releases Bad and buys the Neverland ranch in California.

:: 1991 – Jackson signs a huge recording contract with Sony Music and later releases Dangerous.

THE FALL:

:: 1993 – A 13-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler claimed Jackson sexually abused him during a visit to the ranch.

The same year, Jackson announced he had become addicted to painkillers and abruptly cancelled a world tour to promote Dangerous.

Jackson reaches a settlement with Chandler's family in 1994, later reported to be 23 million dollars.

:: 1994 – Marries Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of rock legend Elvis Presley. The pair are divorced 19 months later.

:: 1996 – Married for the second time to nurse Debbie Rowe in 1996. The couple are divorced three years later.

:: 2001 – The album Invincible – which reportedly cost $30 million to produce – flops.

:: 2002 – Dangles his third child, baby Prince Michael II (whom he calls Blanket), over a fourth-floor balcony at a Berlin hotel, shocking the crowd of fans in the street below.

:: 2003 – The singer tells interviewer Martin Bashir sharing a bed with a young boy is "a beautiful thing".

Documentary reveals that Jackson still has sleepovers with young boys and that his third baby was the child of a surrogate mother. Jackson is furious with the piece and goes on air to blast it.

:: 2005 – He is acquitted of sexually molesting 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo but his career and finances are in tatters.

:: March 2009 – Tickets for 50 concerts at London's O2 Arena sell out within hours after Jackson and music promoter AEG Live announce a surprise comeback for the singer. Jackson, who had been rehearsing in Los Angeles, had been due to start the concerts on July 13.

:: June 25 2009 – Jackson goes into cardiac arrest and dies at the age of 50. Tributes flood in for the King of Pop.

THE AFTERMATH

:: June 29 2009 – Jackson's father Joe says he suspects "foul play somewhere" over his son's death.

Bags of pills and other medicines were seized from his rented mansion as his personal physician continued to insist that the singer had not taken an overdose.

:: June 30 2009 – AEG, promoters of his ill-fated concert, release pictures of his dress rehearsal two days before his death, showing Jackson looking thin but in typical singing and dancing poses as he performed with dancers.

It emerges that he had performed his set for 90 minutes until nearly midnight on June 23.

:: July 1 2009 – Jackson left his fortune to his three children and his mother, the singer's will reveals. The entire estate is left to a family trust, which means under US laws the exact details do not have to be made public.

:: July 7 2009 – Fans gather in Los Angeles ahead of a star-studded memorial service at Staples Centre, Los Angeles, the scene of Jackson's final rehearsal.

jackson fans prepare farewell to 'King of Pop'

jackson fans prepare farewell to 'King of Pop'

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Hundreds of millions of fans around the world have been preparing to bid a poignant farewell to Michael Jackson, as Los Angeles goes into lockdown ahead of a star-studded memorial service.

Nearly two weeks after the death of the tragic "King of Pop," America is expected to grind to a standstill early Tuesday as the tortured music superstar is finally laid to rest.

Jackson's family and close friends are to attend a private funeral service for the iconic singer at 8:00 am (1500 GMT) at the picturesque Forest Lawn mortuary nestled in the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles.

From there, attention will turn to a memorial being held at the 20,000-capacity Staples Center sports arena in the city's downtown.

A staggering 1.6 million people applied to win free tickets for the event allocated via an online lottery over the weekend.

Precise details of the service have been kept under wraps but organizers confirmed Monday that Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey and Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson are just a few of the stars due to participate.

An additional 1,400 police officers will be on duty to provide security, while city blocks surrounding the venue have been sealed off.

Organizers of the memorial, which gets underway at 10:00am (1700 GMT), have appealed to ticketless fans to watch the event on television, fearing chaos if hundreds of thousands take to the streets to mourn.

A live feed of the service is being made available free to television networks, while the event will also be streamed via social networking websites Facebook and MySpace, officials said.

Jackson's mysterious death from an apparent cardiac arrest at the age of 50 on June 25 sent shockwaves rippling around the world, triggering a global avalanche of tributes and grief.

Thousands of fans have continued to flock daily to Jackson's star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame" in Los Angeles, and a makeshift shrine of flowers, cards and toys has swamped the gates of the singer's Neverland Ranch.

Jackson sold more than 750 million albums during a glittering four-decade career that was ultimately overshadowed by repeated allegations of child abuse, his startling physical transformation and eccentric behavior.

While all eyes are on Jackson's memorial Tuesday, multiple law enforcement agencies are probing the circumstances of his death.

An autopsy was carried out on Jackson's body the day after his death, but the Los Angeles County Coroner's office has said it will not issue a final cause of death until the results of exhaustive toxicology tests are known in "several weeks."

Police investigators have meanwhile zeroed in on the possible role of drugs in Jackson's death.

Close friends and associates of the star have angrily alleged that Jackson was surrounded by a coterie of medical professionals willing to provide him with potent prescription medication.

US media, citing unidentified law enforcement sources, said investigators found the powerful sedative Propofol, also known as Diprivan, among a "mini-pharmacy" at Jackson's home.

The discovery has raised the stakes in the probe, which widened last week as the Los Angeles Police Department enlisted the support of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Propofol is commonly used in hospitals to induce unconsciousness in patients before major surgery. Healthcare experts say it should never be used at home and should only be administered by trained anesthesiologists.

Police have questioned Jackson's personal physician Conrad Murray but have stressed he is not suspected of criminal wrongdoing.

Lawyers meanwhile are busy untangling the labyrinth of legal issues that have emerged in the aftermath of Jackson's death.

On Monday, a Los Angeles judge replaced Jackson's mother as temporary administrator of his estate with two of the pop icon's business associates, as demanded by a 2002 will.

A hearing to discuss the fate of Jackson's children -- Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Prince Michael II, 7 -- has been scheduled for July 13.

Jackson's will requested that his 79-year-old mother be appointed guardian, although speculation has built that the star's ex-wife and biological mother of the two eldest children, Debbie Rowe, may lodge a custody bid.