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.

1644--Perplexed Pilgrims in Boston, Massachusetts, report America's first UFO sighting.

1956--Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock becomes the first rock and roll album to enter the album charts. It peaks at #12.

1961--The Beatles perform at Aintree Institute, Aintree, Liverpool, for a fee of £8.5. ($11.90)

1963--The Beatles perform at the Floral Hall Ballroom, Morecambe.

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

1967--Paul McCartney is interviewed by Granada TV, the interview to be included in a half-hour program on the counter-culture to be called "Scene Special: It's So Far Out It's Straight Down." Broadcast on March 7. Viewers saw the well-dressed McCartney, sporting a moustache, politely describing the aims of the 'underground' movement. Also on the program was a film clip of Pink Floyd performing Interstellar Overdrive at the UFO Club, and a poetry gathering at the Royal Albert Hall featuring Allen Ginsberg, Adrian Mitchell, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

1969--George Harrison, furious with John Lennon for making public statements about The Beatles' finances, argues with John so fiercely that the two nearly come to blows.

1969--Pete Best wins his defamation suit against The Beatles. He had sought eight million dollars, but won considerably less.

1969--Blood, Sweat and Tears release their second album, titled Blood, Sweat and Tears. It tops the charts, and produces the hit singles Spinning Wheel and And When I Die.

1977--On the eve of President-elect Jimmy Carter's inauguration, a televised Inauguaral Concert takes place. Among the performers are Linda Ronstadt and Aretha Franklin, while in the audience are people like John Lennon and Paul Simon. John was miffed that Jimmy Carter didn’t appear to know who he was.

1980--It is determined that Paul McCartney will be held in jail in Japan for 10 more days. Paul’s request for a guitar in his cell is denied.

1981--The BBC begins broadcasing a six-part radio series, “The Lennon Tapes,” built around Andy Peebles’ interview with the Lennons on December 6, 1980.

1985--Wilfrid Brambell, the actor who played Paul McCartney's grandfather in The Beatles' first feature film, "A Hard Day's Night," dies in London.

1985--The newspaper USA Today takes a poll of its readers as to where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should be built. The winning city is Cleveland, Ohio.

1988--Westwood One radio network begins broadcasting the four-year series "The Lost Lennon Tapes," using material provided by Yoko Ono. Around 300 hours of rare Lennon material is made available, although these are carefully doled out in small portions on each program, and are sometimes outweighed by over-familiar material. The exclusive material includes studio outtakes, live performances, alternate mixes, home demos, plus many interesting interviews and miscellaneous clips. The first show, hosted by Lennon confidante, Elliot Mintz, is a three-hour introductory program.

1989--Dion, The Ink Spots, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Bessie Smith, The Soul Stirrers, Phil Spector, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during ceremonies at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Highlights of the ceremony include a tribute to Roy Orbison, who had passed away the previous month.

1994--The film "Backbeat," which tells the story of “fifth Beatle” Stuart Sutcliffe, has an advance screening at the Odeon Marble Arch cinema in London.


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