In pictures: When Beatlemania ruled the world

19th May 1967: The Beatles celebrate the completion of their new album, 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', at a press conference held at the west London home of their manager Brian Epstein. The LP is released on June 1st. (Photo by John Pratt/Keystone/Getty Images)

It was a time of escalating war in Vietnam, of nuclear proliferation and civil rights. But it was not a world leader who defined the 1960s but four musicians from Liverpool who oversaw not only the soundtrack to the decade but also the profound cultural change that came with it.

Half a century to the week since Paul McCartney’s resignation placed a coda on the great songbook of the 20th century, our selection of pictures from the archive recalls a time when the whole world seemed to revolve, at 45rpm, around The Beatles.

They conquered first Britain and then the world. By the end of 1963, at the time of President Kennedy’s assassination, they had appeared with Morecambe and Wise, topped the bill at the Royal Variety Performance – “those in the cheap seats clap your hands; the rest of you rattle your jewellery,” John Lennon had defiantly told the audience – and enjoyed three number one singles.

But it was three months later, on the Ed Sullivan TV show in New York, that Beatlemania went global. Their first performance remains one of the most-watched broadcasts to this day.

1964: Policemen struggle to control an excited crowd of young female Beatles fans. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

They arrived on the cusp of change, and their evolving music and appearance over the next few years was always one beat ahead of it. It was a social revolution that bridged the years between rationing and the permissive society.

By the time they performed publicly for the last time, in January 1969, they were almost a political force in their own right, with Lennon and his new wife, the artist Yoko Ono, staging a “bed-in” in the cause of peace.

It ended as it had begun, with an assassination. Lennon’s death, 40 years ago, united the world in a moment of mourning that remains, for those who remember it, the day the music also died.