On this day: 26 December 1963

A month after JFK’s assassination, America was ready to be distracted from its grief. Cue four Scousers who’d been making it big in Britain. On Boxing Day, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was released in the US; it went rapidly to No 1, and by the time the lads (above) arrived in New York in February, and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, the American public was fully primed and scenes of hysteria ensued. The world would never be the same again.