ROSS SIMPSON

Merle Haggard received many honors and awards for
his music, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2010);
a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006); a BMI
Icon Award (2006) and induction into the Nashville
Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Country Music Hall
of Fame (1994) and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame
(1997). He died on April 6, 2016—his 79th birthday—
at his ranch in Shasta County, California, having
recently suffered from double pneumonia.

America met the Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on this day
in 1964. It is estimated that 73 million Americans were watching
that night as the Beatles made their live U.S. television debut.

The Beatles with TV host Ed Sullivan during their first appearance on his show.

On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from
London Heathrow lands at New York’s Kennedy Airport—
and “Beatlemania” arrives.

It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a
British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No.
1 U.S. hit six days before with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
At Kennedy, the “Fab Four”—dressed in mod suits and
sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts—were
greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot
when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American
soil.