This Day In History: February 7, 1964

On February 7, 1964, the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with «I Want to Hold Your Hand,» made their first visit to the United States. At Kennedy, the «Fab Four» were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil. Beatlemania had begun.

Two days later, Paul McCartney, age 21, Ringo Starr, 23, John Lennon, 23, and George Harrison, 20, made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Although it was difficult to hear the performance over the screams of teenage girls in the studio audience, an estimated 73 million U.S. television viewers, or about 40 percent of the U.S. population, tuned in to watch. The group made their first public concert appearance in the United States on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and 20,000 fans attended. The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the venerable music hall because of fan hysteria. On February 22, the Beatles returned to England.

The Beatles’ first American tour left a major imprint in the nation’s cultural memory. With American youth poised to break away from the culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the Beatles, with their exuberant music and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift.