When Beatlemania Conquered Montreal for One Day

On September 8, 1964, Montreal experienced the Beatlemania phenomenon, as John, Paul, George, and Ringo performed two shows at the Montreal Forum as part of their first North American tour, and one of its three Canadian stops; the other two were Vancouver and Toronto.

1964 was a landmark year for the Beatles: In February, they kicked off the "British Invasion" with two landmark appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, in which the February 9 telecast attracted over 73 million viewers; they did their first American concerts in Washington, DC and New York City; they released their first motion picture A Hard Day's Night, which became a major success at the box office; and in April, they achieved the unheard of feat of dominating the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (in order of appearance from 1-5, they were Can't Buy Me Love, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand and Please Please Me).