Visually, they are a nightmare: tight, dandified, Edwardian/Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair. Musically, they are a near-disaster: guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony, and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of yeah, yeah, yeah!) are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments.... the odds are they will fade away, as most adults confidently predict. - Newsweek magazine's review of The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, 24 February 1964
| Y/M/D | Description | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 1964/02/07 | The Beatles arrive in the United States aboard Pan Am Flight 101 at New York's newly renamed John F Kennedy Airport. | Queens NYC, New York City |
| 1964/02/07 | The Beatles are taken by limousine - one per Beatle - to the Plaza Hotel, New York City. | Plaza Hotel, NYC, New York City |
| 1964/02/07 | On his show the week before The Beatles' debut, Ed Sullivan ask his audience, "Coincidentally, if anyone has a ticket for The Beatles on our show next Sunday, could I please borrow it? We need it very badly." | Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City |
| 1964/02/09 | The Beatles tape a performance for The Ed Sullivan Show to be broadcast 23 February 1964. The Beatles sing: Twist and Shout, Please Please Me and I Want to Hold Your Hand. American jazz singer, Cab Calloway, also appears as a guest on the show. | Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City |
| 1964/02/09 | With 45.3 percent of US households with televisions watching (23,240,000 homes), Ed Sullivan opens his show with a congratulatory telegram to The Beatles from Elvis and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. | Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City |
| 1964/02/09 | The Beatles perform live on The Ed Sullivan Show. Opening with "All My Loving", Paul McCartney then sings, "Till There Was You". They wrap up the first set with "She Loves You". | Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City |
| 1964/02/09 | At home in Freehold, Bruce Springsteen watches The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. "Four guys, playing and singing, writing their own material ... Rock N Roll came to my house where there seemed to be no way out ... and opened up a whole world of possibilities." | |
| 1964/02/09 | Tom Petty experiences a life changing moment while watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. | |
| 1964/02/09 | Ed Sulivan's hour-long broadcast concludes with The Beatles singing "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand". Over 40 percent of every man, woman and child living in America had just watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. | Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City |
| 1964/02/11 | The Beatles play their first US concert, at Washington Coliseum, a sports arena in Washington, DC to eight thousand fans. | Uline Ice Company Plant and Arena Complex, Washington, DC |
| 1964/02/11 | British Embassy host a reception for the Fab four. | British Embassy, DC, Washington, DC |
| 1964/02/12 | The Beatles play Carnegie Hall in front of two thousand fans. | Carnegie Hall, New York City |
| 1964/02/16 | The Beatles 2nd Ed Sullivan Show is broadcast live from the Napoleon Ballroom, Deauville Hotel (lost), Miami Beach. Set: She Loves You, This Boy and All My Loving, I Saw Her Standing There, From Me to You and I Want to Hold Your | |
| 1964/02/22 | The Beatles arrive at Heathrow airport at 7 am and are met by an estimated ten thousand fans. | |
| 1964/02/24 | The Beatles appear on the cover of Newsweek, Bugs About Beatles. Inside, the review of The Ed Sullivan Show predicts "... the odds are they will fade away, as most adults confidently predict." |
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