In Hong Kong 1966: Thousands of teenagers thronged Kai Tak Airport to get a look at the Beatles who were passing through Hong Kong on a brief stopover, en route to concert dates in Manila. At 2.45pm, the plane carrying the popular British beat group touched down from Tokyo and taxied to within 150 metres of the observation deck. About 500 teenagers - mostly girls - dressed in mini-skirts, hipsters, bell-bottomed trousers and the latest 'in' fashions, had been waiting on the platform for more than an hour. When the Beatles, whose previous visit to Hong Kong was for live dates in 1964, emerged from the rear of the aircraft, they were met by a crescendo of hysterical screams from the crowd. At a press conference in the airport VIP room, Paul McCartney, the only unmarried Beatle, said he had no definite plans yet to get married. He admitted if he did, it would probably be to his girlfriend, actress Jane Asher. When asked for his comments on anti-Beatles demonstrations taking place in Japan, the singing bassist said: 'We read about that before we went to Japan but we were well-received everywhere we went.' Guitarist George Harrison said he had no idea how long their popularity would last. 'Two years ago we thought it would be finished by now but something has always kept it moving up,' he said. Later, the Beatles were driven back to their waiting plane to yet again more screaming from the platform and frantic waving of hands. At 4.05pm, the plane left. Meanwhile in Taiwan, the police began a campaign against Beatles haircuts. 15 teenagers with such haircuts were taken to police stations in the past two days and shorn to the scalp. Around the world 1775: General George Washington took formal command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachussets, in the American Revolution. 1819: The first savings bank in America, the Bank for Savings in the City of New York, opened. 1883: Franz Kafka, novelist, was born in Prague. His novels, including The Trial and The Castle, both published after his death, had a deep influence on Western literature. 1898: Captain Joshua Slocum arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, after completing the first solo circumnavigation of the world. 1898: The US Navy defeated the Spanish fleet in the harbour of Santiago, Cuba, in the Spanish-American War. 1928: John Logie Baird transmitted the world's first colour television transmission in London. 1944: Troops from the 1st and 3rd White Russian Armies liberated the Belarus capital Minsk from the Germans. 1969: Brian Jones, a founder member of the Brtish rock group Rolling Stones, drowned in his swimming pool from a drugs overdose. 1971: Jim Morrison, lead singer with the American rock group The Doors, died in Paris. 1987: In France, Klaus Barbie, the Nazi 'butcher of Lyon', was jailed for life for wartime crimes against humanity. 1993: President Clinton extended a moratorium underground nuclear testing in the US.
