Short answers, pulled from the story.
Capitol Records released the Yesterday and Today album on the 15th of June 1966. The band had recorded six albums for EMI by early 1966 yet this was their tenth American Capitol album overall.
Photographer Robert Whitaker designed the controversial butcher cover for the Yesterday and Today album during a session at his studio located at 1 The Vale off King's Road in Chelsea. He planned a conceptual art piece titled A Somnambulant Adventure to disrupt conventions surrounding orthodox pop star promotional photography.
Capitol Records printed approximately 750,000 copies of Yesterday and Today with the butcher cover before issuing a recall. Around 60,000 copies were sent to US radio stations and print media for marketing purposes while most retailers refused to stock the LP due to distaste.
Capitol launched Operation Retrieve on the 10th of June to recall all copies of the LP from distributors to replace the offending image. They released Yesterday and Today with the amended cover on the 20th of June after sending a memo to reviewers asking them to disregard the artwork.
Copies never having the white cover pasted onto them are known as first state covers and command highest prices among collectors. Copies with the pasted-on cover intact above the butcher image are known as second state or pasteovers which feature faint horizontal glue lines where owners attempted to peel off the trunk cover.