On This Day: Why it took The Beatles 4 years to officially break up
This article is part of Yahoo's 'On This Day' series.
The Beatles were officially legally dissolved on this day in 1974 – more than four years after Paul McCartney initially announced they would split.
McCartney’s bombshell press release on 10 April 1970, marked the end of the world’s favourite band when he said he could see no future with John Lennon, George Harrison and Sir Ringo Starr.
But it would take until 1974 for the band to dissolve due to the Fab Four fighting it out in court over a settlement.
It was finally over when Lennon signed a legal document on 29 December during a holiday at Disney World – the next day, The Beatles were officially no more.
But even this landmark date had been put in doubt, after Lennon missed an initial appointment to sign an agreement at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan on 19 December.
McCartney and Harrison were waiting for the late Beatle to show up, with Starr on the phone, but he missed the meeting and later said "the stars weren't right" at that point.
Watch: Yoko Ono posts article that said that she did not break up The Beatles
The group's last live performance was on the roof of Apple Corps on 30 January 1969, in Soho, central London.
McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr had met that month to write 14 songs, record a new album and arrange the live performance, which was the first in three years.
Later that year, Lennon brought an end to the band when he told the others: "I want a divorce."
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Speculation about what caused the demise of the world's most famous pop group has ranged from artistic differences and legal disputes to Lennon's marriage to artist Yoko Ono.
McCartney has since said he wanted to continue performing with the Beatles when the band split in 1970 and Lennon instigated the breakup.
"John walked into a room one day and said I am leaving the Beatles," McCartney told BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life.
"And he said, 'It's quite thrilling, it's rather like a divorce'. And then we were left to pick up the pieces."
McCartney added the band would have continued if Lennon had not walked away.
He claims after Lennon announced he wanted to leave, the remaining members of the group were advised by their new manager, Allen Klein, to keep their impending disbandment a secret while he tied up some loose ends.
"So for a few months we had to pretend," McCartney added.
"It was weird because we all knew it was the end of the Beatles but we couldn't just walk away."
The Beatles recorded their last song before the split, I Me Mine, at Abbey Road Studios in January 1970.
The final studio session for the last record Let it be took place at the studios in April that year but with only Ringo there.
The 13th and last album was then released on 8 May.
Following the split, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr went their separate ways, pursuing successful solo careers while the band’s music continued to grow.
Lennon was shot dead aged 40 in 1980 as he left his apartment in The Dakota building, in New York.
Harrison, 58, died at McCartney's home in Los Angeles on 29 November, 2001, after being diagnosed with cancer.
Watch: Paul McCartney: I never got round to telling John Lennon I loved him
