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.
THE FOLLOWING EVENTS TOOK PLACE ON MARCH 21
1869--Florenz “Flo” Ziegfeld, producer of The Ziegfeld Follies, is born.
1956--Carl Perkins is injured in a car crash that kills both his manager and his brother, Jay. By the time Perkins gets out of the hospital, Elvis Presley has already had a hit with his song Blue Suede Shoes.
1961--The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club, Liverpool, their first night show there. The Swinging Blue Jeans top the bill. The Beatles like the Cavern Club, not least for the lack of violence that erupts frequently at other venues. For a fee of £5 per lunchtime session and £15 per night session, The Beatles sharpen the enormous talent that will take them to international fame. The small Cavern Club, which has no tables, is often filled with hundreds of Beatles fans who are packed in like sardines; a fire inspector's nightmare. The Beatles perform on a wooden stage that is only two feet off the ground, and they play only an arm's length from the tight crowds of fans (a closeness they will yearn for when they achieve world fame and have to play in stadiums, far-removed from their then-hysterical fans). John Lennon's manner is copied by the male fans, while the girls are attracted to Paul McCartney, some to George Harrison, but most of them to the enigmatic Pete Best.
1962--The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club -- a lunchtime show.
1963--The Beatles travel to BBC Piccadilly Studios, London, to record a BBC radio program, "On the Scene." They perform three songs, Misery, Do You Want to Know a Secret, and Please Please Me. The show is broadcast on March 28. After recording the radio program, The Beatles drive south to Croydon to rejoin the Chris Montez / Tommy Roe tour for that evening's performance.
1964--She Loves You becomes The Beatles first #1 single in the US. Beatles singles have held the #1 spot for eight straight weeks.
1964--A selection of John Lennon’s verse and prose is published in the Saturday Evening Post, under the title “Beatalic Graphospasms.”
1964--For the first time in British recording history, all Top Ten singles in the UK are by British acts.
1965--The film crew leaves Obertauern, Austria, after the completion of locale shooting for the movie "Help!" The Beatles remain behind for a day of rest.
1965--Martin Luther King, Jr. begins the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1967--The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios, London). Attempts are made to record the vocals for Getting Better. John Lennon, who always carried a pill box with him in order to ply himself with the “necessary drug,” accidentally had taken LSD from his stash and was feeling ill. George Martin (unaware that John was tripping) took him to the rooftop for some fresh air. When Paul McCartney and George Harrison realized where John was, they hurriedly got him off of the roof and back into the safety of the studio. The Getting Better vocals had to be put off for another day. However, the Lovely Rita piano solo is successfully recorded. Supposedly, Paul took John home with him that night and took acid for the first time himself.
1983--Not Now John by Pink Floyd is released as a tribute to John Lennon.
1984--"Strawberry Fields," a tear-shaped memorial garden in New York's Central Park to honor John Lennon, is officially dedicated.
1986--Yoko Ono’s world tour plays a date at the Wembley Conference Centre in London.
1988--Various Beatles home video tapes, “The Beatles At Shea Stadium,” “The Beatles in Tokyo,” “The Beatles In Washington D.C.,” and “The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour,” appear unofficially in America. Apple immediately calls for a halt on sales of the bootleg tapes.
1988--In the UK, Sony home video releases the TV film “John and Yoko: The Complete Story,” which was originally aired in America in 1985 as “John and Yoko: A Love Story.” The American home video release followed on December 21, 1989, sporting the original film title.
1991--The man who invented the electric guitar, Leo Fender, dies.
1999--In today’s UK News of the World, there was a story about the apparent “discovery” of John Lennon’s diary tape from 1979. It was from this tape that two books “Lennon In America” and “Nowhere Man: The Last Days of John Lennon” came about (of course, both books cited many other sources aside from Lennon’s audio diaries in regard to their content).
History offers
1956--Carl Perkins is injured in a car crash that kills both his manager and his brother, Jay. By the time Perkins gets out of the hospital, Elvis Presley has already had a hit with his song Blue Suede Shoes.
1961--The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club, Liverpool, their first night show there. The Swinging Blue Jeans top the bill. The Beatles like the Cavern Club, not least for the lack of violence that erupts frequently at other venues. For a fee of £5 per lunchtime session and £15 per night session, The Beatles sharpen the enormous talent that will take them to international fame. The small Cavern Club, which has no tables, is often filled with hundreds of Beatles fans who are packed in like sardines; a fire inspector's nightmare. The Beatles perform on a wooden stage that is only two feet off the ground, and they play only an arm's length from the tight crowds of fans (a closeness they will yearn for when they achieve world fame and have to play in stadiums, far-removed from their then-hysterical fans). John Lennon's manner is copied by the male fans, while the girls are attracted to Paul McCartney, some to George Harrison, but most of them to the enigmatic Pete Best.
1962--The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club -- a lunchtime show.
1967--The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios, London). Attempts are made to record the vocals for Getting Better. John Lennon, who always carried a pill box with him in order to ply himself with the “necessary drug,” accidentally had taken LSD from his stash and was feeling ill. George Martin (unaware that John was tripping) took him to the rooftop for some fresh air. When Paul McCartney and George Harrison realized where John was, they hurriedly got him off of the roof and back into the safety of the studio. The Getting Better vocals had to be put off for another day. However, the Lovely Rita piano solo is successfully recorded. Supposedly, Paul took John home with him that night and took acid for the first time himself.
1983--Not Now John by Pink Floyd is released as a tribute to John Lennon.
1988--In the UK, Sony home video releases the TV film “John and Yoko: The Complete Story,” which was originally aired in America in 1985 as “John and Yoko: A Love Story.” The American home video release followed on December 21, 1989, sporting the original film title.
