" On the evening of Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon signed a copy of his new album, “Double Fantasy” for a fan.
Seven hours later that fan, Mark David Chapman, shot and killed the legendary member of The Beatles as he returned home from a recording session with his wife, Yoko Ono.
At the time, police said Chapman indicated he was upset with how Lennon scribbled his name on the album. The Associated Press reported that police were familiar with Chapman and described him as “a local screwball.”
Earlier in the day, Lennon and Ono had their photo taken by Annie Leibovitz for Rolling Stone magazine.
Ono was fully clothed while Lennon was curled at her side, nude, in their apartment in the Dakota building in New York City. A short time later, Lennon was interviewed in his apartment by radio personality Dave Sholin.
According to biography.com, Lennon said, at the end of the interview, “I consider that my work won’t be finished until I’m dead and buried and I hope that’s a long, long time.”
The couple left the apartment building around 4:30 p.m. to go to the Record Plant. Lennon signed the album for Chapman. When they came home, Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back and chest with a .38-caliber handgun.
At 11:15 p.m. that night Lennon was declared dead in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital.
Lennon was born on Oct. 9, 1940, in England and raised by an aunt but saw his mother regularly, according to biography.com.
His mother taught him to play musical instruments and bought him his first guitar. According to biography.com, Lennon was 16 when he created a “skiffle band called the Quarry Men.”
Lennon met Paul McCartney in 1957 and invited him to join his band.
They eventually formed a successful music writing partnership that evolved into the British phenomena, The Beatles.
A year after meeting McCartney, McCartney introduced Lennon to George Harrison. The band also added a college friend, Stuart Sutcliffe and then drummer Pete Best.
“The first recording they made was Buddy Holly’s ‘That’ll Be the Day’ in 1958. In fact, it was Holly’s group, the Crickets, that inspired the band to change its name. Lennon would later joke that he had a vision when he was 12 years old — a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, ‘From this day on, you are Beatles with an ‘A.’”
Brian Epstein discovered the Beatles in 1961 and secured them a contract. Ringo Starr came on board as the drummer. The group released its first single in October 1962 – “Love Me Do.”
“Please Please Me,” which topped the charts in Britain, followed along with “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
In 1962 Lennon married Cynthia Powell and they had a son, Julian. They divorced in 1968 and in 1969 Lennon married Yoko Ono, a Japanese avant-garde artist.
In 1964 the Beatles brought their act to the United States appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
After the show, the Beatles made the movie “A Hard Day’s Night.” Their second movie, “Help!” was released in 1965, according to biography.com.
Lennon left the Beatles in September 1969. McCartney left in April 1970.
In 1970, Lennon released a solo album, “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” followed in 1971 by “Imagine.”
Lennon and Ono moved the United States in 1971 “but were constantly threatened with deportation by the Nixon administration. Lennon was told that he was being kicked out of the country due to his 1968 marijuana conviction in Britain, but the singer believed that he was being removed because of his activism against the unpopular Vietnam War. Documents later proved him correct. (Two years after Nixon resigned, in 1976, Lennon was granted permanent U.S. residency),” according to biography.com.
In 1973, Lennon and Ono separated. Lennon continued to release successful albums including “Mind Games,” “Walls and Bridges” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
He and Ono reconciled in 1974 and in 1975 they had a son, Sean.
Five years later, Lennon was dead.
Paul McCartney said after Lennon’s death, “John was a great guy. He is going to be missed by the whole world.”
Chapman, who pleaded guilty to killing Lennon, is serving 20 years to life in prison and has been denied parole 11 times, mostly recently in August. His next parole hearing will be in August 2022. "
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