The Beatles land in America
On this day · 7 February 1964
A transatlantic flight, thousands of screaming fans, and a haircut heard round the world—Beatlemania touched down at JFK.
On February 7, 1964, Pan American flight 101 from London touched down at New York’s newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the United States got its first live look at The Beatles. Thousands of screaming teenagers pressed against the terminal to greet John, Paul, George, and Ringo, who stepped off the plane in matching suits and the mop-top haircuts that reporters could not stop talking about.
The timing was perfect: just six days earlier, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” had become the band’s first U.S. number one. The frenzy at the airport was only the prelude.
Two days later, on February 9, the group played to roughly 73 million American television viewers on The Ed Sullivan Show—one of the largest audiences in TV history to that point.
The arrival is widely marked as the opening day of the British Invasion.
Sources & references
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