On May 9th of 1962, after many weeks of trying, Brian Epstein met with the A & R man at Parlophone — George Martin — for a second time, and played him some more material by The Beatles. Martin wasn’t overly impressed with the songs, but provisionally signed the act on the strength of their manager’s enthusiasm, and on condition that the band attend an audition on June 6th, at Abbey Road studios.

Epstein was ecstatic, and ran to the Post Office to send two telegrams to announce the news: one to the band who were playing in Hamburg at the time, and the other — seen below — to friend of The Beatles and editor of Mersey Beat, Bill Harry.

The rest is history.

Transcript follows. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Transcript

POST OFFICE

TELEGRAM MERSEY BEAT ROYAL 0003 LIVERPOOL= HAVE SECURED CONTRACT FOR BEATLES TO RECORDED FOR EMI ON PARLAPHONE LABEL 1ST RECORDING DATE SET FOR JUNE 6TH= BRIAN EPSTEIN +