That the Beatles hit No 1 on Billboard with I Want to Hold Your Hand. This from Wiki:
The demand was insatiable; in the first three days alone, a quarter million copies had already
been sold (10,000 copies In New York City every hour). Capitol was so overloaded by the demand, it contracted part of the job of pressing copies off to Columbia Records and RCA. By 18 January, the song had started its fifteen-week chart run, and on 1 February, the Beatles finally achieved their first number-one in America,[24] emulating the success of another British group, the Tornados with “Telstar“, which was number one on the Billboard charts for three weeks over Christmas and New Year 1962/63. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” finally relinquished the number-one spot after seven weeks, passing the baton to the very song they had knocked off the top in Britain: “She Loves You”. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” sold close to five million copies in the US alone.[25] The replacement of themselves at the summit of the US charts was the first time since Elvis Presley in 1956, with “Love Me Tender” beating out “Don’t Be Cruel“, that an act had dropped off the top of the American charts only to be replaced by another of their releases. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” also finished as the No. 1 song for 1964, according to Billboard.[26] In 2013, Billboard listed it as the forty-fourth most successful song of all-time on the Hot 100.[27]
I was 13 in 1964 and remember purchasing the above 45 and showing it to Jackie Price who lived across the road from the Store. Jackie looked at the photo of the Beatles and said “They’ll never be as good as Elvis.” I shot back to Jackie with something about how out of tune he was and that Elvis was done for. Check out this description of the Beatles meeting Elvis (click here.)
Then just yesterday while visiting my Mom somehow the subject of Elvis came up. She recalled seeing him the first time he appeared on Ed Sullivan in 1956 (click here). We were living at the Store and she remembers going out in the Store and telling Buzzy and whomever was there in the Store at the time that they needed to come see this fella dancing around on the T-V. She said they all went back in the living room and watched as Elvis did his thing. She said that everyone just shook their heads and said it was something. “You got to remember” Mom said “we were used to Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. They didn’t dance around like that.” Here’s the link to a video of Elvis’ first appearance (click here.)