**1963**

January 1
The Beatles begin their concert tour in Scotland

February 2
The Beatles begin British tour with Helen Shapiro as the top act on the bill

February 4
LOVE ME DO / P.S. I LOVE YOU is released as a single in Canada (Capitol Records)

Historical significance: The first true Beatles single is released in North America .

Paul White, then Capitol Canada record executive, had this to say on why he decided to release the Beatles first single: "I used to listen to about fifty new records a week. Then one day I put on "Love Me Do" by a group called the Beatles. I immediately sat up and took notice. The sound was so different, so completely fresh.

"I'm certainly not going to claim that I could read the future and already knew how big the Beatles were going to be, but I did like them a lot and wanted Capitol of Canada to get in on the ground floor. I decided to release Beatles' records in Canada ".

February 20
PLEASE PLEASE ME / ASK ME WHY (single) is released in USA (Vee-Jay Records)

March 22
PLEASE PLEASE ME - their first album, is released in England , on Parlophone Records

May 6
FROM ME TO YOU / THANK YOU GIRL (single) is released (Vee-Jay Records)

This single peaked at No. 116 on the Billboard music chart in August.

July 22
SHE LOVES YOU / I'LL GET YOU (single) is released (Swan Records)

July 23
Cohburn & Company prints cover clicks only for "Introducing the Beatles"

On this date, Cohburn & Company print up 6,000 album cover slicks for Vee-Jay's "Introducing the Beatles" LP but Vee-Jay's manufacturing plans for pressing the actual vinyl are quickly scuttled. Two reasons that delayed this album release are: 1) On August 8, Transglobal in America who was a subsidiary of EMI in England , was told by EMI to legally inform Vee-Jay to "cease production and distribution of all Frank Ifield and Beatles records" until such times as the royalties were paid up. 2) By September, Cohburn and Company sued Vee-Jay for over $50,000 owed on the account for various album cover slicks they had manufactured for Vee-Jay. The end result of this delay meant that the next issue of either a Beatle album or single on the Vee-Jay label would not occur until January 1964, just in time to capitalize on "Beatlemania".

August 3
The Beatles appear for the last time at the Cavern Club

September
During this month, George Harrison along with his brother Peter, visits their sister Louise in Benton Illinois in the USA . While there he would buy a guitar and also sat in at a few clubs performing with a local band called The Four Vests. George also went camping with the family and also took in some points of scenic interest in Southern Illinois . Anxious to get to get the Beatles known in America, George and his sister visit a local Benton radio station one Saturday and meet up with a very young DJ named Marsha Schaffer who hosted a 1-hour rock and roll program. There they persuade the DJ to play "Please Please Me" along with another Beatle single possibly making this the first time Beatle records are heard over the radio in the USA .  Today both record and the turntable which was used to spin the disc at the radio station are located at the Hard Day's Night Bed and Breakfast mini-Beatles museum on 113 McCann Street , once home to Louise Harrison.  

November 4
At the "Royal Variety Show," held in Prince of Wales Theatre, London , the Beatles perform before the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon. John Lennon humorously tells the audience: "Those of you in the cheaper seats - clap your hands; and those of you in the more expensive seats - just rattle your jewelry."

November 22
"With the Beatles" (lp) is released in Britain (Parlophone Records)

Track listing, Side One: 1) It Won't Be Long 2) All I've Got To Do 3) All My Loving 4) Don't Bother Me 5) Little Child 6)Till There Was You 7) Please Mister Postman
Side Two: 1) Roll Over Beethoven 2) Hold Me Tight 3) You Really Got A Hold On Me 4) I Wanna Be Your Man 5) Devil In Her Heart 6) Not A Second Time 7) Money

November 25
 "Beatlemania With The Beatles" (lp) is released in Canada (Capitol Records)

Historical significance: The first true Beatles album is released in North America that contained same track listing as "With the Beatles" which was released only a three days earlier in Britain .

November 29
700,000 advance orders for "I Want To Hold Your Hand" by British fans

December
In Britain , the Beatles Fan Club peaks at 80,000 strong.

A London Times music critic names them "outstanding English composers of 1963." The Sunday Times critic declares them "greatest composers since Beethoven."

December 6
"BEATLES CHRISTMAS RECORD" is sent out to fan club members
The concept was thought up by their press agent, Tony Barrow who also wrote the basic script for the first three Christmas records.

December 10
CBS News airs a film clip on The Beatles

CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite airs a film about the Beatles phenomenon in England that was filed by their U.K. correspondent, Alexander Kendrick. The film contained a clip of the band performing "She Loves You" along with some interviews. The sounds of this British rock and roll combo performing "She Loves You" had created a strong and favorable impression on Marsha Albert, a 15-year-old girl from Silver Spring , Maryland . She would later be acknowledged by the Washington Post as the first Beatle fan who kick started the whole "Beatlemania" craze on USA radio.

However, while teenagers eventually went crazy over Beatles and their music, Walter Cronkite recalls his viewpoints as being a little less than favorable with regards to the English quartet: "In the wake of the [John F. Kennedy] assassination story, nothing else was happening in the world, at least in the United States -- stuff that was important, that is. So we actually had an opportunity to use it.

"I was not entirely thrilled with it myself, to tell you the truth. It was not a musical phenomenon to me. The phenomenon was a social one, of these rather tawdry-looking guys, we thought at the time, with their long hair and this crazy singing of theirs, this meaningless 'wah-wah-wah, wee-wee-wee' stuff they were doing."

December 17
 Carrol James of WWDC radio in Washington becomes the first DJ in the United States to play "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

The importance of Beatles music came to Carrol James's attention through Marsha Albert. She remembered being impressed with the Beatles performance of "She Loves You" from the CBS news broadcast. Said Marsha: "It wasn't so much what I had seen, it's what I had heard. They had a scene where they played a clip of 'She Loves You' and I thought it was a great song. I wrote that I thought [the Beatles] would be really popular here, and if [James] could get one of their records, that would really be great."

According to the Washington Post, Carrol James "thought maybe the girl was onto something, and he got the station's promotion director to contact a local agent for BOAC (now British Airways)" to procure a copy of the band's latest record, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" which was currently unavailable in the USA marketplace. 

James eventually obtains a copy from the local BOAC agent. Said Marsha: "Carroll James called me up the day he got the record and said 'If you can get down here by 5 o'clock, we'll let you introduce it.' " Which Marsha did: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time on the air in the United States , here are the Beatles singing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.' "

A few days later, Capitol Records threatened WWDC radio by suggesting they would consider using a legal injunction to block airplay of "I Want To Hold Your Hand", because technically, the song wasn't supposed to be released until January 13 in the new year. However, both Carrol James and the radio station ignored the threat and continued to spin the disc over the airwaves. In the end, Capitol never sued WWDC and decided on more positive course of action.

December 26
I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There (Capitol Records) is released

Though scheduled for a January 13 release date, momentum in the airplay of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" continued. By now Carrol James had already sent out copies of the Beatle single to a fellow DJ in Chicago and also to a DJ in St. Louis . Sensing the single is gaining momentum both in terms of airplay and interest from teenagers, Capitol Records decided to financially capitalize on the opportunity: on this date they rush-release copies of "I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There" into the marketplace. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" becomes the fastest selling British single in America .