History offers
a chance
to truly
understand
how the past
impacts the now.

Follow our
daily timelime
of historical
events to
discover the
role The Beatles
played in changing
the modern world.

1653--New Amsterdam becomes a city...and later it will become New York, New York, the most influential city in the world.

1892--The bottle cap with a cork seal is patented by William Painter.

1937--Tom Smothers (of the comedy team The Smothers Brothers), is born in New York City.

1942--Graham Nash (of The Hollies, and later Crosby, Stills and Nash), is born.

1955--Petula Clark's first major hit, Majorca, debuts on the UK chart. Although the single is the first of a string of Top 20 hits in the UK and Europe, it will be 10 years before Clark gets a hit in the US.

1959--It's the day before the day the music died. The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, hosts a concert featuring Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. All three performers will be killed in a plane crash the following morning. Holly sits in on drums for several of the acts. Carlo Mastrangelo of The Belmonts joins The Crickets to play drums during Holly's performance, as his drummer Carl Bunch is suffering from frostbite.

1961--The Beatles perform at Litherland Town Hall, Liverpool.

1962--The Beatles perform at the Oasis Club in Manchester. This is their first professionally-arranged out-of-town performance; Brian Epstein's efforts are beginning to pay off. The song list for the evening's performance is: Hippy Hippy Shake, Sweet Little Sixteen, The Sheik of Araby, September In the Rain, Dizzy Miss Lizzie, Take Good Care of My Baby, Till There Was You, Memphis, What a Crazy World We Live In, Like Dreamers Do, Money, Young Blood, Honeymoon Song, Hello Little Girl, So How Come, Ooh My Soul, To Know Her is to Love Her, Hully Gully, Roll Over Beethoven, The Love of the Loved, Dance / Twist in the Streets, Dream, and Searchin'.

1963--The Beatles perform at the Gaumont Cinema, Bradford, Yorkshire. This is the opening night of the nationwide Helen Shapiro tour, with The Beatles playing at the bottom of the six-act bill. Helen Shapiro, a sixteen-year-old from London, had been voted Best British Female Singer for both 1961 and 1962. The Beatles perform four songs, Chains, Keep Your Hands Off My Baby, A Taste of Honey, and Please Please Me. The Beatles also have two alternate songs prepared for use during the tour, Love Me Do and Beautiful Dreamer. With the tour's second date three days away, The Beatles travel back to Liverpool to appear at the Cavern Club.

1964--The Beatles perform two shows at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, France.

1966--No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: My Love by Petula Clark.

1967--The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios, London). Recording the lead and backing vocals for the song Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

1969--Yoko Ono is divorced from Anthony Cox in the Virgin Islands. Cox receives a divorce settlement of 6,700 pounds, and Yoko is given custody of their daughter, Kyoko.

1970--Look magazine uses the opening line from A Day in the Life to headline its look back at the 60s.

1970--British philosopher Bertrand Russell dies at age 97. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1950.

1973--The "Midnight Special" rock music show debuts on NBC-TV.

1988--Clive Epstein, brother of Brian Epstein, dies at age 51.

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