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role The Beatles
played in changing
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1606--England adopts the Union Jack as its flag.

1654--The Ordinance of Union comes into effect, uniting Ireland and Scotland with England.

1911--The first non-stop London-Paris flight take 3 hours and 56 minutes.

1919--British Parliament passes a 48-hour work week with minimum wages.

1935--"Your Hit Parade" debuts on American radio. It would be developed into a popular TV show in the 1950s.

1945--Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States (1933-1945), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, at the age 63. Harry S. Truman is sworn in as 33rd President.

1950--David Cassidy, the singer-actor who played "Keith" on The Partridge Family, is born in New York City.

1954--Bill Haley and the Comets record Rock Around the Clock. It sells an estimated 25 million copies worldwide, making it the second biggest-selling single at the time behind Bing Crosby's White Christmas. First released as a "B" side, it was featured the next year in the film "Blackboard Jungle," and became the first rock and roll record to hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts.

1954--Joe Turner releases Shake, Rattle & Roll.

1955--The Salk polio vaccine is determined to be safe and effective.

1961--The Beatles perform at the Top Ten Club, Reeperbahn, Hamburg, West Germany.

1963--UK release of Beatles single From Me to You / Thank You Girl (Parlophone). 17 weeks on the charts; highest position #1. [Note: Some sources state that April 11, 1963, is the correct date of release].

1963--The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club, Liverpool, headlining an eight-hour "Rhythm and Blues Marathon." This is the first Beatles appearance at the Cavern since February 19.

1963--Bob Dylan performs a solo concert at New York's Town Hall. It's recorded by CBS-TV for a planned live album, but the disc is never released. Billboard, however, is ecstatic about the performance. "Dylan," it says, "is the stuff of which legends are made. His talent will be around for a long, long time."

1964--The Beatles filming at Marylebone Station, London, for "A Hard Day's Night." No fan extras are utilized today.

1965--The Beatles resume filming at Twickenham Studios for their movie "Help!" Shooting of the scene at Buckingham Palace where The Beatles are trapped in the slow-motion field of Professor Foot's "Relativity Cadenza."

1966--Jan Berry, half of the singing duo, Jan and Dean, crashes his Corvette into a parked truck and is seriously injured.

1969--John Lennon and Yoko Ono go to the offices of Henry Ansbacher & Co. to put order to their accounts.

1973--The film ”That'll Be the Day,” starring Ringo Starr and David Essex, has its London premiere.

1987--Texaco files for bankruptcy.

1988--Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California.

1988--Harvard University patents a genetically engineered mouse. The is the first such creation in regard to animal life.

1989--Abbie Hoffman, Yippie peace activist of the 1960s, dies at age 52.

1992--George Harrison is interviewed for a television special, "The Making of Sgt. Pepper." The interview takes place at George's country house west of London.

1999--Two Beatles recordings and one John Lennon solo recording are named to the Recording Hall of Fame. The Beatles' album Revolver, the Beatles' song Strawberry Fields Forever, and the John Lennon solo recording Imagine are selected. Also inducted this year was Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode.

For more day-by-day history go to HistoryUnlimited.net