Fifty years ago today, Beatlemania gripped D.C. as the four lads from Liverpool prepared to play their first stateside show at the Washington Coliseum.

A Washington Post report of the band’s arrival from February 12 was titled “Beatles Arrive, Teen-agers Shriek, Police Do Their Duty, and That’s That.”

Insp. Hughes stood on the step, looking at the cameras and the lights and the note-book. Tension was high. “Eeeeh,” said Insp. Hughes, or maybe it was “Eeeek.” At any rate, it sounded like a police inspector imitating the call of the hysterical teen-ager under his breath.

And so, John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr stepped from the train into laughter, which is not the sort of thing they’re use to.
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For hours, teenagers had been streaming into Union Station — many of them from National Airport, where the Beatles, before the show, had been scheduled to arrive. At first, numbers of them had infiltrated the platform itself. But police quickly began herding them out to the concourse.

“You can’t throw her out,” one girl moaned as police seized another girl. “She’s president of the Beatles fan club.” But it turned out the police could.
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Finally, almost 20 minutes later, the teen-agers spotted the train and, for the first time, the gold-plated, all-wool, guaranteed shriek of the idolater squealed out into the storm. Underfoot there was a stepped-on Eskimo Pie.

The 12-song setlist from The Beatles’ show at the Coliseum, a Northeast D.C. space formerly known as the Uline Arena, featured “I Saw Her Standing There,” “This Boy,” “All My Loving,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and Twist and Shout.” Watch a few of those performances below.

Today, a tribute concert will take place at the Coliseum, which will eventually be converted into office and retail space. The Metropolitan Police Department is warning residents: “Beatle Mania will take place in the District of Columbia at 1 p.m.”