Tuesday marks the anniversary of the murder of one of Britain’s greatest musical icons.
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Former Beatle John Lennon has been shot dead by an unknown gunman who opened fire outside the musician’s NY apartment. Lennon, who together with Paul McCartney fronted the most influential rock band in history, would have been 75 years old today.
Lennon was taken to Roosevelt Hospital in a police radio vehicle and was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room…. He and Ono left the Dakota at 5 p.m. for an appointment at the record studio, and on their way out they were approached by Mark David Chapman. Chapman was imprisoned in 1981 and has been denied parole eight times. At his parole hearing he said: ‘I am sorry for causing that type of pain. “I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way to glory”.
One tweeted: “itwasalrightinthe1960s anybody who’s read a bit about The Beatles knows that “Saint” John Lennon had a cruel “humour” about disabled people”. In addition, Ono continues to spread the message of peace and love that Lennon championed in songs like “Imagine” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by supporting a variety of philanthropic campaigns and charities. His life would forever be memorialized by Strawberry Fields in Central Park, where a mosaic spelling out “Imagine”, the title of Lennon’s classic song, attracts tourists and fans to this day.
“There was all this fracas and it was the night time that John Lennon obtained shot”. But thirty five years on, his music is still as alive as ever. [Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images]Howard Cosell was the first person to break the news to the world that John Lennon had been killed.
Here is how various news outlets reported the December 8, 1980 death of John Lennon.
FILE – In this December 14, 1980, file photo, a helicopter flies over Central Park in NY where an estimated crowd of between 50,000 to 100,000 people gathered to pay tribute to the late John Lennon.
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Lennon and Yoko briefly toyed with going out to eat as it was, by this stage, gone 10pm but resolved instead to return to the Dakota as Lennon wanted to say good night to Sean before he went to sleep.
