(Newsweek) Sunday nights were always special in our home. Each week, my family would gather in front of our four-legged, wooden box of a TV to see who would be appearing on that week’s Ed Sullivan Show. It was the only TV show I watched regularly with my family (assuming my homework was done).

Just 10 weeks before Americans met the Beatles, our world was turned upside down on the bleakest Friday ever-November 22, 1963. With President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the balloon had suddenly popped, and very dark days and nights followed.

The Fab Four were the perfect antidote, and thanks in large part to Ed Sullivan, people in America would finally see them. The Beatles appeared three Sunday nights in a row, starting February 9, 1964. Seventy-three million Americans were glued to their TVs that first night. Parents may have wondered what was going on, but if you were young enough, you knew.

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