King of Pop Michael Jackson Dies

The King of Pop, Michael Jackson  Dies.

Jackson collapsed at a rented home on 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles during the late morning or early afternoon of June 25 PDT. His personal physician, cardiologist Dr. Conrad Murray,^[3] was present and tried to resuscitate him.^[4] Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics received a 911 call at 12:21 pm (19:21 UTC), and arrived three minutes and seventeen seconds later, at which point Jackson was reportedly not breathing.^[5][6]

Paramedics are reported to have wanted to pronounce him dead at the scene, but Jackson’s doctor insisted he be taken to hospital.^[7] CPR was performed on the way to the UCLA Medical Center, and for one hour after he arrived at the hospital at 1:14 pm (20:14 UTC), to no avail.^[4] He was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm (21:26 UTC).^[8]

Sources close to Jackson told reporters that his health had been poor. J. Randy Taraborrelli, who knew him for 40 years, told The New York Times that Jackson had become “very frail, totally, totally underweight,” and that his family had been worried about him. Taraborreli said Jackson had suffered from an addiction to painkillers off and on for decades, resolving it, then losing control of it again.^[10]

Jackson’s death triggered an outpouring of grief among fans, as they gathered outside the UCLA Medical Center and his Holmby Hills home.^[16] Fans also gathered outside the Apollo Theater in New York, and at Hitsville U.S.A., the old Motown headquarters in Detroit, now the Motown Museum, where people created a shrine.^[17] A small crowd, including the city’s mayor, gathered outside Jackson’s childhood home in Gary.^[18]

Jackson leaves behind a son and daughter from his marriage to Debbie Rowe—12-year-old Michael Joseph Jackson and 11-year-old Paris Michael Katherine Jackson—and a son, seven-year-old Prince Michael Jackson II, born to an unidentified surrogate mother. He also leaves his brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Randy; his sisters Rebbie, Janet, and La Toya; and his parents, Joseph and Katherine.

Jackson had been scheduled to perform 50 sold-out concerts to over one million people at London’s O₂ arena, from July 13, 2009 to March 6, 2010, which he implied during a press conference would be the final concerts of his career.^[2]

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