Media reports immediately following his death indicated Haley displayed deranged and erratic behavior in his final weeks, although beyond a biography of Haley by John Swenson, released a year later, which described Haley painting the windows of his home black, there is little information extant about Haley's final days.

In February 2006, the International Astronomical Union announced the naming of asteroid 79896 Billhaley to mark the 25th anniversary of Bill Haley's death.

* A German-language biography was published soon after Haley's death, written by Peter Cornelsen and Harald D. Kain.

" Still more demos, alternate takes, and wholly unheard-before recordings have been released since Haley's death.

Following Haley's death in February 1981, a number of major tributes involving " Rock Around the Clock " occurred.

Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981.

Following Haley's death, no fewer than six different groups have existed under the Comets name, all claiming ( with varying degrees of authority ) to be the official continuation of Haley's group.

Haley hired several new musicians to take their place: Rudy Pompilli on sax, Al Rex ( a former member of the Saddlemen ) on double bass, and Ralph Jones on drums ; in addition, lead guitarist Franny Beecher, who had been a session musician for Haley since Cedrone's death in the fall of 1954, became a full-time Comet and Haley's first performing lead guitarist.

More than 100 musicians performed with Bill Haley & His Comets between 1952 and Haley's death in 1981, many becoming fan favorites along the way.

Malcolm X's screenplay, co-credited to Lee and Arnold Perl, is based largely on Alex Haley's 1965 book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Haley collaborated with Malcolm X on the book beginning in 1963 and completed it after Malcolm X's death.

After Haley's death in 1981, Beecher toured with a short-lived Comets reunion group.

Williamson left the Comets in early 1963 and reportedly never played another note, declining invitations to join Comets reunion groups that formed after Haley's death in 1981.

Bill Haley's longest-serving musician, Pompilli began working with Haley in September 1955 and was still a member of The Comets at the time of his death more than 19 years later.

Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was a personal friend of Haley's but acknowledged doubts about his claims, saying, " Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang.

Haley's father William Albert Haley was from Kentucky and played the banjo and mandolin, his mother Maude Green originally from Ulverston in England was a technically accomplished keyboardist with classical training.

The anonymous sleeve notes accompanying the 1956 Decca album " Rock Around The Clock " describe Haley's early life and career thus: " Bill got his first professional job at the age of 13, playing and entertaining at an auction for the fee of $ 1 a night.

It was then known as Bill Haley's Saddlemen, indicating their definite leaning toward the tough Western style.

During the Labor Day weekend in 1952, The Saddlemen were renamed Bill Haley with Haley's Comets ( inspired by a popular mispronunciation of Halley's Comet ), and in 1953, Haley's recording of " Crazy Man, Crazy " ( co-written by Haley and his bass player, Marshall Lytle although Lytle would not receive credit until 2001 ) became the first rock and roll song to hit the American charts, peaking at no. 15 on Billboard and no. 11 on Cash Box.

Haley made a succession of bizarre, mostly monologue late-night phone calls to friends and relatives in which he seemed incoherently drunk or ill. Haley's first wife has been quoted as saying, " He would call and ramble and dwell on the past, his mind was really warped.

" A belligerent phone call to a business associate was taped and gives evidence of Haley's troubled state of mind.

Songwriters Tom Russell and Dave Alvin addressed Haley's demise in musical terms with " Haley's Comet " on Alvin's 1991 album Blue Blvd.

Haley's original Comets still tour the world.

Bill Haley Jr. ( Haley's second son and first with Joan Barbara " Cuppy " Haley-Hahn ) publishes a regional business magazine in Southeastern Pennsylvania ( Route 422 Business Advisor ).

* In 1990, Haley's eldest son, John W. Haley, along with John von Hoëlle wrote Sound and Glory, a biography focusing mostly on Haley's early life and peak career years.

Jefferson died in Chicago at 10 am on December 19, 1929, of what his death certificate called " probably acute myocarditis ".

Her death certificate gives the cause of death as phthisis ( tuberculosis ), but many biographers suggest she may have died from dehydration and malnourishment, caused by excessive vomiting from severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum.

" All medical records, including his death certificate, have been lost.

The doctor listed " cardiac dilation " on the death certificate.

She was even noted as a " pittoressa ", a paintress, on her death certificate.

Despite Germain's intellectual achievements, her death certificate lists her as a “ rentière – annuitant ” ( property holder ), not a “ mathematicienne.

Vivien Leigh's death certificate gave her date of death as 8 July, but some references give the date 7 July.

" Catherine Clinton notes that Tubman reported the year of her birth as 1825, while her death certificate lists 1815 and her gravestone lists 1820.

Upon Powell's death, Wilfred Wood, then Bishop of Croydon, stated, " Enoch Powell gave a certificate of respectability to white racist views which otherwise decent people were ashamed to acknowledge ".

However, archivists have not located any such marriage certificate or any birth, baptismal or death certificate information for anyone called Juan Vivion de Valera or de Valeros, an alternative spelling.

His World War I draft registration card showed September 13, 1884 but his California death certificate listed his birth as September 20, 1889.

On his death certificate his occupation was listed as " apprentice salesman.

Some claim her birth certificate supports the April 8, 1914 birthdate, although no actual evidence ( such as a copy of either the birth or the death certificate ) has been presented as concrete evidence.

The Nobel prize is presented to the recipient ( s ) at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death, along with a diploma and a certificate for the monetary award.

Her death certificate lists the cause as " acute asthma attack due to or as a consequence of smoke inhalation.

Shipman was the last person to see her alive, and later signed her death certificate, recording " old age " as cause of death.

His death certificate issued by the coroner claimed that he had died from an accidental fall whilst studying rock formations, and it would only be in the 1980s, with the publication of his letter to Grimes, that his death became recognised as a suicide.