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.

1895--British inventor, Birt Acres, patents a film camera / projector.

1919--Charles Strite patents the pop-up toaster.

1951--The Chinese Communists force the Dalai Lama, Tibet's god king, to surrender control of his region's foreign affairs and its army to Beijing.

1943--Cilla Black is born Priscilla White in Liverpool, England. Cilla had quite a fateful start in the music business. She was a coat check girl at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, when she met Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein. He got her into the business, and became responsible for her hit, You're My World (1964). She also recorded a Lennon-McCartney song in 1964, It’s For You, that was not a chart success in the US. Cilla was very friendly with The Beatles, especially John Lennon, who had a hand in originally promoting her to Brian Epstein.

1957--Brunswick Records releases The Crickets' (with lead singer Buddy Holly) first record and only chart topper, That'll Be the Day, backed with I'm Looking for Someone to Love.

1960--The Silver Beetles perform at the Regal Ballroom, Nairn, Nairnshire, on the sixth date of their tour backing singer Johnny Gentle.

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

1961--The first black light is sold.

1962--The Beatles perform at the Star-Club, Hamburg, West Germany.

1962--Bob Dylan releases his The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan LP, which contains the songs Blowin' In The Wind and A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall.

1963--US release of The Beatles’ single, From Me to You / Thank You Girl (VeeJay). Since The Beatles are still unknown in the US, the single tops out on Billboard's singles chart at #116.

1963--The Beatles, touring with Roy Orbison, perform at the Capitol Cinema, Cardiff, Glamorganshire.

1966--John Lennon and George Harrison attend Bob Dylan's concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The audience jeers at Dylan when he appears with an electric back-up group (The Band), but John and George shout support for Dylan. The concert is recorded, later to be heard on various bootleg albums that substantiate claims made for the concert: that is one of the high-water marks of live rock and roll. Earlier that day, inside a limousine, Dylan and Lennon (who are both very stoned) conduct a long, rambling, incoherent conversation that is filmed for Dylan's "Eat the Document" film project. Dylan ends the sequence by vomiting over the floor of the cab. The film is never officially released.

1967--John Lennon announces that The Beatles will not tour again.

1967--Two of America's biggest record labels, Columbia and RCA Victor, announce they will raise the list price of mono albums by $1 on June 1. It's the first increase since 1953.

1969--Construction begins in Florida on Walt Disney World.

1973--The original Cavern Club in Liverpool closes for good. The site will be covered by a parking lot and, later, a shopping center called Cavern Walks. A new Cavern Club, built partially from bricks from the original structure, will be erected at a later date.

1973--In England, Melody Maker writes: “Yoko Ono doesn’t need excuses any longer...she has her three chords together and more. She can write real songs about things that matter. John Lennon is married to her, you remember him.” At the Town Hall, just off Broadway in New York, Yoko performs another solo concert for the benefit of WBAI radio, an event sponsored by Capitol Records. Wearing a white suit, white shoes, and a white t-shirt sporting the “Approximately Infinite Universe” emblem, she tells the audience: “You probably know me as the actress who married a public John, or as mad Jack the screamer, or something.” After performing a few songs with Elephant’s Memory, she begins her part of the charity auction. The first item up for bids is a sheet she slept on with John during their 1969 Bed-In event in Amsterdam. Featuring both John and Yoko’s signatures, it sells to a man in the audience for just $10. She then offers her panties, and then the t-shirt she is currently wearing. “No, I don’t come with it!” she screams to a man in the audience, adding, “I’m too experienced for you.” The potential buyer insists that he will buy the item only if she takes the t-shirt off in front of him. “Okay,” she replies, “but only if you give me $30.” He agrees, and Yoko removes the shirt, revealing another white t-shirt underneath it. “Ha! The joke’s on you, you male pig! You’ve seen me nude before, haven’t you? Two Virgins?”

1975--US release of Wings LP, Venus and Mars (Capitol). Songs: Venus and Mars, Rock Show, Love In Song, You Gave Me the Answer, Magneto and Titanium Man, Letting Go, Venus and Mars (reprise), Spirits of Ancient Egypt, Medicine Jar, Call Me Back Again, Listen to What the Man Said, Treat Her Gently / Lonely Old People, and Crossroads Theme. 77 weeks on Billboard chart; highest position #1.

1979--John Lennon and Yoko Ono place full-page ads in the New York Times, London's Sunday Times, and a Tokyo newspaper, entitled "A Love Letter from John and Yoko to People Who Ask Us What, When, and Why." It bears all the marks of Ono’s prose, not Lennon’s, but its message of carefree, naive idealism, and pleasure in placidity suggests that the couple are enjoying an idyllic family life...despite the subsequent testimony of ex-friends and insiders that the opposite was true.

1983--Fred Seaman pleads guilty to grand larceny charges and is sentenced on July 14 to five years probation, on the condition that he will never reveal the contents of the Lennon documents and manuscripts that had been in his possession.

1997--US release of the Paul McCartney album, Flaming Pie (Capitol). Songs: The Song We Were Singing, The World Tonight, If You Wanna, Somedays, Young Boy, Calico Skies, Flaming Pie, Heaven On a Sunday, Used to Be Bad, Souvenir, Little Willow, Really Love You, Beautiful Night, and Great Day. Jeff Lynne and Steve Miller each perform with Paul on a number of tracks. Paul’s son, James, appears on the song Heaven On a Sunday and Linda McCartney appears on Heaven On a Sunday, Beautiful Night, and Great Day. Ringo Starr appears on the songs Really Love You and Beautiful Night. 18 weeks on Billboard chart; highest position #2.

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