John Lennon

EARLY LIFE

John Winston Lennon was born at Liverpool Maternity Hospital on October 9, 1940. The "Winston" came from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill - John would later add "Ono" to his middle name in honor of Yoko.

Photo by Roy Kerwood. Wikipedia Commons

He was brought up by his Aunt Mimi at 251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton, South Liverpool. John lived there with her and her husband George Smith, until mid-1963 when he was 22 years old.

Through visits with his mother, Julia, John learned to play the banjo and she gave him his first guitar in 1956.

251 Menlove Avenue, where Lennon lived for most of his childhood. By Havaska -  Wikipedia

Mimi Smith famously told him: "Music’s all very well, John, but you’ll never make a living from it."

Lennon did poorly in school and got into college through the persuasion of his aunt and headmaster. He was thrown out his final year.

MUSIC CAREER 

A bus driver gifted Lennon with one of his early musical instruments, giving him a harmonica that Lennon went on to play extensively during early performances and initial recordings with the Beatles.

16-year-old John Lennon met 15-year-old Paul McCartney at a St Peter's Parish Church party in Woolton, Liverpool. Lennon's group The Quarrymen were performing at the do. Impressed by McCartney's ability to tune a guitar and by his knowledge of song lyrics, Lennon asked him to join his band as lead guitarist.

In the late 1950s The Quarrymen was renamed the Silver Beatles (a wordplay on the musical term beat that also paid tribute to rocker Buddy Holly's Crickets) before being shortened to The Beatles.

The Fab Four inspired a worldwide frenzy of Beatlemania, perhaps primarily because they projected the self-image of the 1960s teenager. By the time they led the British invasion of the United States in 1964, the Beatles held the top five spots on the singles recording charts.

John Lennon's book, In His Own Write, was published on March 23, 1964.  It was the first solo effort by one of the Beatles. Lennon weaved whimsical line drawings and sharp satire into a collection of 31 poems and short stories. The book was an immediate hit, quickly selling out its first printing of more than 100,000 copies.

Wikipedia Commons

John Lennon disliked his own voice and once asked Beatles producer George Martin to "smother it with tomato ketchup or something."

His best known song after the break-up of The Beatles is "Imagine." Lennon said the song is "virtually the Communist Manifesto," before adding, "even though I am not particularly a communist and I do not belong to any movement."

PERSONAL LIFE

John Lennon's first girlfriend  when he was at art college was named Thelma Pickles.

John Lennon married Yoko Ono on March 20, 1969 at the British-owned Rock of Gibraltar in Spain. The Beatles song "The Ballad of John and Yoko" describes their ordeal finding a location for the nuptials.

They originally attempted to marry in Paris, but were caught "standing in the dock at Southampton. Trying to get to Holland or France," as later documented in "The Ballad Of John And Yoko." Passport problems keep them from boarding.

During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel between March 25 - 31 1969.

John Lennon changed his middle name from Winston to Ono on April 22, 1969, in honor of his wife, Yoko Ono. The ceremony was held on the roof of the Apple building in London. Lennon had never liked his middle name, which had been given to him during a bout of wartime patriotism. He said that Yoko had changed her name for him, and that he had changed his name for her. "One for both, both for each other," he said. "She has a ring. I have a ring. It gives us nine 'O's between us, which is good luck. Ten would not be good luck."

After the ceremony, Lennon and Ono went to EMI Studios at Abbey Road where they recorded the track "John And Yoko," which became side one of their Wedding Album. As part of the track, Lennon and Ono recorded their heartbeats using a sensitive hospital microphone. They then stood at a pair of microphones and called each others’ names for 22 minutes.

John Lennon returned his MBE to Buckingham Palace on November 25, 1969, partly in protest at Britain’s involvement in the Biafran war in Nigeria. It was taken to the tradesmen’s entrance at Buckingham Palace in his Mercedes with a letter to the Queen. It read: "I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts."

In 1966, on the set of How I Won The War, Lennon was issued a pair of National Health spectacles. Lennon's round, wire-rimmed glasses became part of his iconic public image. He was legally blind without his specs.

John Lennon, usually chauffeur-driven in his Rolls Royce, drove his other car, a white Mini home from the Ministry of Transport Test Centre at Weybridge, Surrey on February 16, 1965, after passing his driving test at the first attempt.

John Lennon took delivery of his Rolls-Royce - hand-painted in bright, psychedelic colors - on May 25, 1967.

John Lennon's Rolls-Royce rear, Royal BC Museum, Victoria.

Lennon received his driver’s license at 24-years-old. He was the last Beatle that learned how to drive and was regarded as terrible behind the wheel by all who knew him. The Beatle officially gave up driving when he wound up with 17 stitches after totaling his car in 1969.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono mutually agree to a trial separation on February 4, 1974, which effectively kicked off the former Beatle's notorious eighteen-month "lost weekend." During this time, Lennon would consume lots of drugs and alcohol and -- at Yoko's request -- take up with Ono associate May Pang.

Bed-In for Peace, Amsterdam 1969 - John Lennon & Yoko Ono

At an Auburn, Indiana, auction, Las Vegas surgeon Dr. Lonnie Hammargren paid $325,000 for the psychedelic 1956 Bentley limousine once owned by John Lennon.

John Lennon was the only Beatle who didn't become a full-time vegetarian.

DEATH

John Lennon was shot aged 40 outside his New York apartment by the deranged fan Mark Chapman on December 8, 1980. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Roosevelt Hospital. Chapman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years-to-life in jail.

The last known photograph of John Lennon while he was alive was taken on December 8, 1980, by photographer Paul Goresh. The photo shows Lennon signing an autograph for Mark Chapman, who would later shoot and kill Lennon just hours later. 

The photo was taken outside Lennon's apartment building, The Dakota. Lennon was on his way to record a new song with his wife, Yoko Ono, when he stopped to sign the album for Chapman. Chapman had been stalking Lennon for several days and had been waiting outside The Dakota for hours in the hopes of getting an autograph.

Lennon signing a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman Wikipedia

The actress Lauren Bacall was staying in the same New York apartment building as John Lennon when he was shot. Bacall later recalled she had heard the gunshot but assumed that it was a car tire bursting or a vehicle backfiring.

Yoko Ono refused to hold a funeral for her late husband, as she felt "his spirit would live forever." Instead, she asked people everywhere to observe ten minutes of silence and prayer for him on December 14, 1980, at 2:00 PM. At that time, the music playing in Central Park stopped, and people all over the world fell silent for ten minutes.

On October 9, 1990, on what would have been Lennon's fiftieth birthday, "Imagine" was simulcast on radio and television stations all over the world, as people remembered Lennon and his music.

Sources Nydailynews.com, Artistfacts