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.

1617--The first one-way streets are established in London, England.

1833--Britain abolishes slavery in its colonies, with 700,000 slaves freed.

1924--Mars makes its closest approach to Earth since the 10th century.

1947--Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, is born in Wembley, England.

1951--Mark Hudson, of The Hudson Brothers, is born in Portland, Oregon. He would much later produce solo album projects for Ringo Starr.

1960--The Beatles perform at the Indra Club, Grosse Freiheit, Hamburg, West Germany.

1961--The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club at lunchtime and then again that night.

1961--East Germany imposes new curbs on travel between West and East Berlin. In retaliation, the Western powers place tanks and 1,000 troops along the Berlin Wall.

1962--John Lennon and Cynthia Powell are wed at Mount Pleasant Register Office, Liverpool, the same place that John’s parents had been married. John and Cynthia had decided to marry when Cynthia discovered that she was pregnant. John spends the evening performing with The Beatles in Chester. The couples’ wedding lunch, funded by Brian Epstein, was at Reece’s Cafeteria in Liverpool.

1962--The Beatles perform at Riverpark Ballroom, Chester. It is John Lennon’s wedding night.

1962--”Mersey Beat” announces the change in drummers for The Beatles. Pete Best fans react violently, and protest petitions are signed. The Beatles are jeered by Best supporters when they next appear at the Cavern Club.

1963--UK release of The Beatles’ single She Loves You / I’ll Get You (Parlophone). 24 weeks on the charts; highest position #1.

1963--The Beatles perform at the Gaumont Cinema, Bournemouth.

1964--The Beatles, on a tour of the USA, perform a 29-minute concert at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California. Attendance is 18,700. Since Capitol Records was planning to release a live Beatles album in the US, the Hollywood Bowl concert is recorded. They had wanted to record the February 12th Carnegie Hall performance, but the American Federation of Musicians had refused. Now, with permission in hand, a Beatles concert is recorded on three-track equipment. The songs recorded were: Twist And Shout, You Can’t Do That, All My Loving, She Loves You, Things We Said Today, Roll Over Beethoven, Can’t Buy Me Love, If I Fell, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Boys, A Hard Day’s Night, and Long Tall Sally. Both Capitol Records and the Beatles gave the resulting tapes the thumbs-down; the quality of the recording was too poor to release, and the tapes were shelved. However, in 1977 the tapes would be resurrected, and six songs from the 1964 concert would be combined with seven tracks from the 1965 Hollywood Bowl concert, creating the album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl. The mixing of 1964 and 1965 tapes was necessary to get enough good performances of songs for the album. Since The Beatles and their fans couldn’t really hear the music being played, the boys were finding it increasingly difficult to care whether they played well or not. Yet these tracks show that the Beatles were still playing at a very high level, high enough for the “Hollywood Bowl” album to reach #1 on the charts on June 18, 1977, almost 13 years after the 1964 Hollywood Bowl concert had been recorded. Before 1977, the only uses of this material were a 48-second extract of Twist and Shout that appeared on the Capitol album The Beatles Story, and the audience applause and screaming that links the songs Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and With a Little Help From My Friends on the 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

1965--The Beatles touring party moves to San Diego, California, to take a rest for several days at a private house rented by Brian Epstein.

1966--On their final tour of America, The Beatles perform at Shea Stadium in New York City, New York. Unlike the previous year’s performance, which had sold out, there are 11,000 empty seats in the 55,600 seat stadium. Nonetheless, The Beatles earn more than the previous year, receiving $189,000 for their performance.

1967--The Beatles in the recording studio (Chappell Recording Studios,Maddox Street, London). Recording Paul McCartney’s song, Your Mother Should Know. The song will be re-recorded at EMI’s Abbey Road studios, but the Chappell Studios version is the one that will end up on record. Brian Epstein attends the recording session, which is a bit unusual these days. This is the last Beatles recording session before Brian’s death: he will be found dead in his home on August 27th.

1967--Brian Epstein and his mother, Queenie, go to the Saville Theatre.

1968--The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios, London). With Ringo Starr having quit the group (temporarily), John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison complete Back In the USSR, adding numerous overdubs which include jet airplane sounds taken from the EMI tape library: “Volume 17: Jet and Piston Engine Aeroplane.”

1973--The Intelsat communications satellite is launched.

1974--New York newpapers publish that John Lennon has seen a UFO, while standing nude on his apartment building’s terrace. The sighting took place at 9:00 p.m.

1990--East and West Germany announce they would unite on October 3rd, ending four decades of post-World War II division.

1990--Bob Dylan’s childhood home in Hibbing, Minnesota, is sold to an anonymous buyer.

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