July 6, 1957

On this day in 1957, 15-year-old Paul McCartney attended a church where he met 16-year-old John Lennon. Lennon had formed a band called the Quarrymen, which was playing at the picnic. Between sets, McCartney played a few songs on guitar for the band, and a few days later Lennon invited him to join.

Soon the group had acquired a loyal following. The group changed its name to Johnny and the Moondogs and recruited McCartney’s friend George Harrison. After bassist Stu Sutcliffe joined, they changed the name again. This time they were called the Silver Beetles, which eventually was modified to the Beatles.

Tommy Moore briefly joined the band as drummer and was replaced by Pete Best in 1960. Sutcliffe left the band to become a painter in 1961 but tragically died of a brain hemorrhage less than a year later. After a string of rejections by several record labels, Best left the band in 1962 and Ringo Starr joined up.

The Fab Four was born. Soon after McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr recorded “Love Me Do,” the group’s first Top 20 hit in the United Kingdom. Two years later, they were introduced to American listeners. Beatlemania officially began when they landed at Kennedy Airport in 1964 to kick off their first-ever U.S. tour. A frenzied mob of fans greeted them and the rest, as they say, is history.