On this day 12 June, 1965: The Beatles press conference about the MBE announcement. A spokesman for the British government announced that the Beatles have been named to the MBE (Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire).The Daily Mirror publishes with the headline "Beatles, MBE!".As news outlets went into overdrive following the announcement that The Beatles were to be awarded MBEs,a press conference was hastily convened at Twickenham Film Studios where the group had been watching a rough edit of the Help! film. At 1.30pm all four Beatles appeared in front of 150 reporters at the studios.
The Beatles' names were put forward for this honor by Harold Wilson, Prime Minister at the time. Wilson would later remember, "I saw the Beatles as having a transforming effect on the minds of youth, mostly for the good. It kept a lot of kids off the streets. They introduced many many young people to music, which in itself was a good thing. A lot of old stagers might have regarded it as idiosyncratic music, but the Mersey sound was a new important thing. That's why they deserved such recognition."
Later, on October 16, 1965, the Beatles received the MBE awards from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. Several previous recipients of the award felt the award was demeaned, and returned theirs.
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