On this day, 18 September 1970, Jimi Hendrix is found dead in a girlfriend’s house in Notting Hill, London. The 27 years old had taken nine pills of the barbiturate Vesparax, that along with alcohol, caused a fatal overdose.

The guitarist and singer had a history of drug use: a year earlier he appeared in court in Canada, where he was acquitted of possession of hashish and heroin but admitted using marijuana, cocaine and LSD. His death comes a fortnight after that of Canned Heat founder Alan Wilson – also from an overdose of sleeping pills – and within a year he will be joined by Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison (all are 27 when they die).