Video: 'Jimi Hendrix death 1970 ABC News Announcement Rockspots'

(Friday, September 18, 1970, 12:45 p.m. BST) — American rock star James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix, ranked as the greatest guitarist and the sixth greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, was pronounced dead today at St Mary Abbot’s Hospital in London.

Video: 'Jimi Hendrix Death Announcement September 18, 1970'

Hendrix’s girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, said she awoke around 11:00 a.m. and found the 27-year-old musician breathing but unconscious and unresponsive. She called for an ambulance at 11:18 a.m. which arrived at 11:27 a.m..

Video: 'NBC Nightly News - 1970-09-18' (Hendrix's death reported at 21:24)

Paramedics then transported Hendrix to St Mary Abbot’s Hospital where Dr. John Bannister pronounced him dead at 12:45 p.m.

Video: 'The Life and Career of Jimi Hendrix'

Coroner Gavin Thurston concluded that Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. Citing “insufficient evidence of the circumstances,” he declared an open verdict.

Video: 'Jimi Hendrix | The Last 24 Hours'

Dannemann later revealed that Hendrix had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping tablets, 18 times the recommended dosage.

Video: 'Mugshots: Jimi Hendrix - Jimi's Final Hours'

Born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942 in Seattle, his body was flown to Seattle on Sept. 29, 1970. His family and friends held a service at Dunlap Baptist Church in Seattle’s Rainier Valley on Oct. 1; his body was interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Renton, Washington, the location of his mother’s grave.