The Beatles attend a party at Brian Epstein’s country house

The Beatles, minus Paul McCartney, attended a party at Brian Epstein's country house, Kingsley Hill in Warbleton near Heathfield in Sussex on this day.

Epstein had recently bought the house for £25,000, and the party was a joint housewarming and a celebration for the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The roads leading to the house were adorned with balloons for the occasion.

In addition to The Beatles and their wives, it was attended by a number of friends and celebrities including composer Lionel Bart and The Beatles' former press officer Derek Taylor.

This was Taylor's initiation to LSD; he was given the drug by John Lennon. The pair spent much of the party in Lennon's Rolls-Royce listening to Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade Of Pale. It was also Cynthia Lennon's third and final experience taking LSD.

Brian was having a party at the country house he'd bought in Sussex and John and I traveled down in the Rolls with a group of friends. On the journey everyone took LSD and I, against my better judgement but carried away by the jolly atmosphere in the car, decided to join in. Again, it was an awful mistake.

At Brian's house I followed John around, hoping he would comfort me as I went through what was, for me, a horrible experience. But he was not in a good mood: he glared at me and treated me as if I were a stranger. I felt desolate. Upstairs I found an open bedroom window and contemplated jumping out. For a few minutes, ending it all seemed like an easy solution: a chasm had opened between John and me, and I had no idea how to bring us back together.

Someone called my name, I turned back into the room and the fleeting thought passed. But I was low. For the first time I had to consider the very real possibility that my marriage might not survive.

Cynthia Lennon