It Was 50 Years Ago Today

The Beatles played their last ever public performance, on the rooftop of Apple Records. It was a ray of sunshine in an incredibly bleak period for them (as bleak as things could be if you were a Beatle, that is):

 In January of 1969, the Beatles had just slogged their way through a soul-destroying month of misery in which John Lennon was wracked with heroin addiction, a frustrated George Harrison briefly quit the band and Paul McCartney worked ceaselessly as the group’s self-anointed cheerleader — so much so that, by the end of the month, his relentless good-natured energy was beginning to backfire and was driving the Beatles perilously close to the edge of disbandment.

And how'd you like to be known as one of the cops who broke it up!??!