Born six months apart in northwest Washington, Kurt Cobain and Lane Staley died on this day — in 1994 and 2002 respectively — for the most senseless of reasons: Cobain by suicide, and Staley by the same speedball combination of narcotics that also claimed the lives of Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Mitch Hedberg, and River Phoenix.

Kurt was 27 years old. Lane was 34.