Twenty-three years after its 1948 premiere, "The Ed Sullivan
Show" had its final broadcast on June 6, 1971.

For more than two decades, Sullivan’s variety show was the
premiere television showcase for entertainers of all stripes,
including borscht-belt comedians, plate-spinning vaudeville
throwbacks and, most significantly, some of the biggest and
most current names in rock ‘n’ roll.

In its first eight years of existence, there was no such thing as
rock ‘n’ roll to be featured on the program originally called
"Toast of the Town," yet even its first broadcast made music
history when Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II gave the world its first taste of the score
from their upcoming musical, South Pacific.

October 1, 1962 – May 22, 1992 on NBC

Ed McMahon (left) served as Carson’s sidekick and the
show’s announcer.

Comedian Bob Hope gave his last Christmas show to U.S.
servicemen in Saigon on this day in history, Dec. 24, 1972.

The iconic entertainer, who starred in more than 50 films,
kept up a tradition of visiting troops deployed overseas
since WWII.

Hope’s 1972 show marked his ninth consecutive Christmas
appearance in Vietnam, according to History.com.

On December 24, 1972, Bob Hope delivered a live Christmas show to American soldiers stationed in Vietnam. The show,
held at the Bien Hoa Air Base, was a festive event attended
by thousands of servicemen.

Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope
(May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003)

The Beatles came together for their final live performance on this
day in history, August 29, 1966.

The concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco was never
announced as the band’s last dance, but there was plenty of
speculation that the boys were looking to call it quits, according
to The Beatles Bible.

Although the Fab Four made a surprise appearance on the rooftop
of the Apple building in London on Jan. 30, 1969, Ringo Starr wrote
in an anthology that it was clear the Candlestick Park performance
would be the band’s official finale.

They were the most successful American pop group of the 1960s—
a group whose 12 #1 hits in the first full decade of the rock and roll
era places them behind only Elvis and the Beatles in terms of chart dominance. They helped define the very sound of the 60s, but like
fellow icons the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, they came apart
in the first year of the 70s. The curtain closed for good on Diana
Ross and the Supremes on January 14, 1970, at the Frontier Hotel
in Las Vegas, Nevada.