On February 9 The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, marking their first live performance on American television. Seen by an estimated 73,000,000 viewers, the appearance becomes the catalyst for the mid-1960s "British Invasion" of American popular music. (Ed Sullivan was cagey enough to put them on at both the beginning and the end of the program in order to keep the audience tuned in throughout). The idea that crime rates plummeted at the time is false and arose out of a sneering comment to the effect that all the criminals were watching the Beatles.
