Friday, November 22, 2013

it was fifty years ago today


The Beatles second album, With The Beatles, is released in the UK, 89 days before their American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964.  Mark Lewisohn: "With astonishing British advance orders of 300,000, it swiftly passed the half-million and, in 1965, the one million sales marks. It even earned a brief placing in the singles chart, which in the early 1960s was calculated on sales of any record, irrespective of diameter."


"Friday, 22 November 1963, began as usual in the Lewis household, Warnie later recalled: after they had breakfast, they turned to the routine answering of letters, and tried to solve the crossword puzzle. Warnie noted that Lewis seemed tired after lunch, and suggested that he go to bed. At 4:00, Warnie brought him a cup of tea, and found him 'drowsy but comfortable.' At 5:30 [GMT], Warnie heard a 'crash' from Lewis's bedroom. He ran in to find Lewis collapsed, unconscious, at the foot of the bed. A few moments later, Lewis died. His death certificate would give the multiple causes of his death as renal failure, prostate obstruction and cardiac degeneration." Alistair McGrath


"President Kennedy was killed today by an assassin's bullet as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas. The assassination occurred shortly after noon (12:30 CST, 5:30 GMT). Cheering crowds lining the streets had been stunned when shots rang out and the 46-year-old president crumpled in the seat of the open limousine, a massive, gaping wound in his head." Chronicle of the 20th Century