Fans around the world on Saturday marked what would have been the 51st birthday of late pop icon Michael Jackson as thousands braved rain in New York for a party organised by filmmaker Spike Lee.

Lee arranged what he described as a "joyous, festive and celebratory" event in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, with DJ Spinna setting the beat.

As the party got underway there were fears that the rains would keep the crowds away, but as the skies cleared police estimated there were between 7000 and 10 000 people.

Videos of some of Jackson's greatest hits were showing on a big-screen television. Some fans hit the dance floor and got down, Jackson-style.

Others waited and took turns writing down their memories of the star on a special memorial wall.

"May your spirit, light, love and music forever bless us as we dance the nights away," a fan named Kayine wrote inside a heart.

"We re-fell in love with Michael Jackson," said Juliette Friedman (32) who came from Boston with a friend for the party. "When he died we rediscovered him, songs we didn't know, and how great his music is."

It was homicide

The celebration came as weeks of feverish speculation about the cause of Jackson's sudden death in Los Angeles on 25 June ended on Friday when the county coroner's office ruled his demise was a homicide.

In a statement, the officer said that while "acute intoxication" from the powerful anaesthetic propofol was the primary cause of death, Jackson had also suffered from the effects of other drugs in his system.

As well as propofol, powerful drugs including lorazepam, midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine and ephedrine were found in Jackson's body.

The coroner's announcement will fuel speculation that authorities are likely to charge Jackson's personal physician Conrad Murray in connection with the death. Cardiologist Murray was the last person to see Jackson alive.

Focus on Jackson

But in scores of locations around the world, the focus was on Jackson, his songs and his outsized influence on music and pop culture.

Some 700 fans filled the street by Jackson's boyhood home in Gary, Indiana, for an all-day block party celebrating the icon's life.

"This street here will be like Graceland someday right here in Gary," said artist Steven "Bumpcasso" Hill, referring to the famed mansion of rock star Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee.

Vendors were hawking Michael Jackson key chains, belt buckles, DVDs, and T-shirts, as Jackson hits blared from a soundstage at the end of the street.

Local music performers took to the stage in the early afternoon and a candlelight vigil was underway at dusk with fans paying tribute.

Jackson's family had originally planned to bury the late popstar on his birthday, but the interment will now take place on Thursday at the prestigious Forest Lawn cemetery, in the leafy Glendale suburb of Los Angeles.

Other tributes were taking place around the world, as some of Bollywood's biggest stars released a free musical tribute to Jackson.

The video, called 'Make It Large - A Tribute to Michael Jackson', features introductions from actors including Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif and Priyanka Chopra as well as Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh.

In it, Khan says of Jackson: "We've lost a part of our history; some of us have lost a part of our growing up."

Close to 13,000 people in Mexico City attempted to smash the world record for the most people simultaneously performing Michael Jackson's famed 'Thriller' dance.

Some 12 937 dancers gathered in the heart of the Mexican capital their thousands around midday, dressed up as monsters and the "undead" for the mass performance.

Another attempt on the record — last held by 242 dancers in the United States in April — was held just hours earlier as 697 fans in the Spanish city Barcelona dressed as zombies to do Jackson's 1982 'Thriller' dance.

Both attempts were awaiting to be certified by the Guinness Book of Records.