Many D.C. locals know the barrel-roofed Uline Arena as where the Beatles played their first North American concert in 1964, after appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and whipping millions of American teens into a frenzy. But the building—used for a mix of sports and other events during its mid-20th-century prime—has witnessed a lot more history than that.
President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1953 inaugural ball was at Uline. Rudolf Nureyev danced there. Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad spoke there. The Washington Lions hockey team and Washington Capitols basketball team both played in Uline, known from 1960 onwards as the Washington Coliseum.