Dennis Wilson Drowning — Marina del Rey, California

Dennis Wilson, the drummer and only surfer in the Beach Boys, drowned on December 28, 1983, while diving from a friend's yacht — the Emerald — moored at Slip 77 in Marina del Rey. He was 39 years old. Wilson had been drinking heavily and was reportedly diving to retrieve personal items he had thrown overboard from the same boat years earlier. His blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit. The coroner ruled the death an accidental drowning.

Dennis Wilson was the most troubled and in many ways the most emotionally authentic of the Beach Boys. While Brian Wilson was the group's genius and Mike Love its showman, Dennis was the one who actually surfed, the one who brought genuine California wildness to the band's image. His solo album Pacific Ocean Blue (1977) is now regarded as a masterpiece of melancholy Californian pop-rock, and his struggles with alcoholism and drugs — including a notorious period when Charles Manson and his followers lived at Wilson's home on Sunset Boulevard — have become central to the Beach Boys' complex mythology.

In an unusual arrangement, President Reagan authorised Dennis Wilson's burial at sea — a privilege normally reserved for military personnel and government officials. His body was committed to the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Marina del Rey. There is no grave to visit, but the marina itself remains, and fans occasionally visit the area. A marker was later placed at his mother's grave at Inglewood Park Cemetery.