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John Lennon was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, author, actor, filmmaker, artist, and political spokesman, and one of the greatest figures in postwar popular music. Lennon was born in Liverpool, England on October 9th, 1940 to Julia and Alfred Lennon. All through his schooling years he was known as a troublemaker, constantly skipping school to watch movies of his hero: Elvis. His father was a sailor and was barely home, and his mother sent him to live with his Aunt Mimi. Mimi bought John his first guitar saying that he would never make any money from music. Later John bought Mimi a gold plaque with those words engraved. John then lived with his mother again for a short period and really got to know her well, and felt like he belonged with her. But one day she was going to the store and was hit by a car and was killed. John really never got over the loss. John formed a skiffle band with a few friends called The Quarrymen. They played a few shows around their area of Liverpool but one gig in particular was very important. They played at the Woolton Parish Church where he met Paul McCartney after his show. Paul later joined the band, followed by George. John was always the most political minded Beatle, with controversial songs such as Revolution. He was also know to be the "crazy" Beatle, being the most eager to try drugs such as LSD and weed. His songwriting however blossomed through his chemical affected mind producing hit after hit constantly bending the rules of what was musically possible. Though possibly his marriage to Yoko Ono tore the Beatles apart, he was a irreplacable part of the great band. After the Beatles, John enjoyed a very successful career even after his untimely death on December 8th, 1980 at the hands of maniac Mark David Chapman in front of his New York apartment building, who just earlier in the day had asked Lennon for his autograph. John also did many great things for world peace during his post-Beatle days, including his famous bed-in with Yoko in Montreal, Canada.
October 9, 1940 John Lennon is born during a bombing raid at Oxford Street Maternity Hospital, Liverpool, to Julia Stanley and Alfred Lennon.
July 6, 1957 John meets Paul McCartney at the Woolton Parish Church in Liverpool during a performance by the Quarrymen. John, impressed by Paul's ability to tune a guitar and by his knowledge of song lyrics, asks Paul if he wants to join the group as lead guitarist.
January 1961 The Beatles debut at the Cavern Club.
April 8, 1963 John Charles Julian Lennon is born to Cynthia and John at Sefton General Hospital, Liverpool. The birth, like the marriage, is kept secret from Beatles fans at Brian's urging.
August 3, 1963 The Beatles play their farewell show at the Cavern Club, having logged almost three hundred performances there.
February 7, 1964 The Beatles begin their first US tour.
February 9 and 16, 1964 The Beatles headline twice on the "Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS, for a $3,500 performance.
Spring 1965 John, Cynthia, George Harrison, and Patti Boyd inadvertently take their first LSD trip when a dentist-friend of Harrison's spikes their coffee.
July 29, 1965 Help! has its world premiere in London's West End. Reviews hail the Beatles as "modern Marx Brothers."
August 1965 The Beatles meet Elvis Presley at his home in Bel Air. Not knowing their individual names, Elvis refers to each as "Beatle."
November 1966 Yoko Ono and John Lennon meet for the first time at a preview of her art show Exhibition #2 at Indica Gallery in London.
September 1967 John writes "I Am the Walrus" while under the influence of LSD. The Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour
January 30, 1969 The Beatles' last performances a group is on the roof of the Apple building, during the filming of Let It Be. John thinks Paul intends his lyrics, "get back to where you once belonged," for Yoko, who is at John's side during the session.
March 20, 1969 John and Yoko marry in Gibraltar.
Fall 1973 For the first time since they met in 1968, John and Yoko agree to separate. John travels to Los Angeles. He called his eighteen-month separation from Yoko his "lost weekend."
November 1973 John, Paul, and George sue Allen Klein. "The only thing that has prevented us from getting together again," declares Paul, "has been Klein's contractual hold over the Beatles' name. When he's out of the way, there is no real reason why we shouldn't get together again." John's album Mind Games is released.
January 1975 John and Yoko are reunited. The Beatles' final dissolution takes place in London.
October 9, 1975 Sean Taro Ono Lennon is born at New York Hospital on John's thirty-fifth birthday. John is ecstatic. He exclaims, "I feel higher than the Empire State Building."
October 23, 1980 John's first new single, "(Just Like) Starting Over," is released.
November 17, 1980 The Double Fantasy album is released internationally. Plans are discussed for a world tour.
December 8, 1980 John and Yoko return to the Dakota in their limousine, after a recording session. As John walks toward the entryway of the building, a deranged assailant, Mark David Chapman, fires five shots, hitting John in the chest. By the time Yoko and police rush him to Roosevelt Hospital's emergency room, John Lennon is dead.
"I'd never met a woman I considered as intelligent as me. That sounds bigheaded, but every woman I met was either a dolly chick, or a sort of screwed up intellectual chick. And of course, in the field I was in, I didn't meet many intelligent people anyway. And I always had this dream of meeting an artist, an artist girl who would be like me. And I thought it was a myth, but then I met Yoko and that was it."
"Uta o tsukuru toki, piano o tsukaimasu," John writes, learning Japanese. ("When I create a song, I use a piano.")
