The night three Beatles showed up for Daniel Ellsberg's birthday
Daniel Ellsberg performed many feats during his 92-year life: collecting the Pentagon Papers, fighting against nuclear proliferation and helping to bring down a president.
He also got three of the four Beatles to help pay his lawyers.
Ellsberg’s decision to leak the Pentagon Papers — 7,000 pages of secret documents that exposed the U.S. government’s knowing deception about the Vietnam War — led the government to indict him on espionage charges in 1971, a legal saga that led in part to revelations that undid Richard M. Nixon’s presidency.
As the trial progressed, Ellsberg, who died Friday, was running out of funds for his defense.
That’s where Barbra Streisand, the Beatles and other celebrities came in.
Streisand and activist Stanley K. Sheinbaum, who organized Ellsberg’s defense fund, decided to hold a fundraiser on Ellsberg’s 42nd birthday in April 1973. The singer invited scores of celebrities, including John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who paid $250 each to attend, the Associated Press reported. The party marked the first public event featuring three of the four Beatles since the band’s 1969 breakup.
Source: Shera Avi-Yonah/washingtonpost.com
