This week marks five years since the death of Michael Jackson. Here's a look at some of the many milestones in the King of Pop's massive career from when he was alive to after his untimely passing.
1964: Michael and Marlon Jackson join their brothers and father in the Jackson Brothers in their hometown of Gary, Indiana.
1965: The Jackson Brothers changes its name to the Jackson 5, going on to open for established R&B acts such as Sam and Dave, The O'Jays and Gladys Knight for live shows at Midwest venues on the "chitlin’ circuit."
1969: After cutting a few records for Steeltown, a hometown indie label, the Jackson 5 sign with Motown Records and relocate to Los Angeles.
1972:Michael Jackson releases solo debut, "Got to Be There."
1975: The Jackson 5 leaves Motown for Epic Records, where they record as the Jacksons, with Michael also tied to the label as a solo artist.
1979: "The Wiz" may have tanked in theaters, but music director and veteran producer/musician Quincy Jones is tapped to produce Michael Jackson’s next solo album, "Off the Wall," a commercial smash that would garner numerous awards and go on to sell 20 million albums.
1983: The "Thriller" video revolutionizes music videos. The 14-minute conceptual video directed by John Landis was a lavish musical production number with special effects.
1985: Michael Jackson teams with Lionel Richie to write "We Are the World," recording the anthem with an all-star cast to raise funds for USA for Africa, a charity intended to provide relief to famine-plagued Africa. Released in March, the single raises $63 million for famine relief, sells nearly 20 million copies and snags four Grammys including Song of the Year.
1985: Having learned of the value of music publishing from iconic pal Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson buys ATV Music Publishing following a year of negotiations. Among ATV's most prized catalogs: Northern Songs, which controlled most of the Lennon-McCartney classics recorded by the Beatles.
1986: Michael Jackson teams with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola to star in "Captain EO," a 17-minute 3D film exhibited at Disneyland, Disney’s EPCOT complex in Orlando, Fla., and Tokyo Disneyland.
1987: Five years after the phenomenal success of "Thriller," Michael Jackson releases his "Bad" full-length. While it won't surpass its predecessor in terms of overall sales, "Bad" still spawns seven hit singles, five of which hit No. 1.
1989: On his globe-trotting "Bad" tour, launched near the end of 1988, Michael Jackson breaks new attendance records including a Guinness World Record set when he drew 504,000 fans to London’s Wembley Stadium.
1993: With viewing audiences for its halftime shows dwindling, the Super Bowl ups its game to enlist a superstar: Michael Jackson's four-song set for Super Bowl XXVII kicked off a new era of Bowl half-time extravaganzas and reversed the trend to see more fans tuning in for halftime than for the game.
1995: For his next album, "HIStory," an epic double set coupling a retrospective hits disc with an album of new material, Michael Jackson teams with his sister Janet, now a dance and R&B diva in her own right, for the first single, "Scream."
2009: On June 25, less than three weeks before the first scheduled London performance, Michael Jackson died in his bed in a rented home in Los Angeles' Holmby Hills district. Rapidly spreading news of his death crashed websites including TMZ, the Los Angeles Times and AOL Messenger, and reportedly consumed 15 percent of all Twitter traffic.
2010: Sony releases "Michael," an album of previously unreleased material recorded from 1982 onward and featuring various guests including 50 Cent, Akon and Lenny Kravit
