Beatles' Ringo Starr to be Knighted

les" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow" title=-- target="_blank">was issued the day after Christmas in 1963. By mid-January, 1964, it had sold a million copies.

The Beatles landed at JFK airport on Feb 7, 1964, greeted by approximately 3,000 fans.

On Feb. 9, the Fab Four gave their first live performance in the U.S., on the Ed Sullivan Show. The estimated viewership was 73 million viewers, 34% of the U.S. population at the time, and "the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television program" according to biographer Jonathan Gould.

Beatlemania had taken hold, and it has never let go.

George Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001, John Lennon died of a gunshot in December 1980. Sir Paul and the soon-to-be knighted Ringo continue to be musically active.