December 8:

1980 : John Lennon shot
John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock
group that transformed popular music in the 1960s, is
shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City.
The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury
Manhattan apartment building when Mark David Chapman
shot him four times at close range with a .38-caliber
revolver. Lennon, bleeding profusely, was rushed to
the hospital but died en route. Chapman had received
an autograph from Lennon earlier in the day and
voluntarily remained at the scene of the shooting
until he was arrested by police. For a week, hundreds
of bereaved fans kept a vigil outside the
Dakota--Lennon's apartment building--and
demonstrations of mourning were held around the world.
John Lennon was one half of the singing-songwriting
team that made the Beatles the most popular musical
group of the 20th century. The other band leader was
Paul McCartney, but the rest of the quartet--George
Harrison and Ringo Starr--sometimes penned and sang
their own songs as well. Hailing from Liverpool, England, and influenced by early American rock and
roll, the Beatles took Britain by storm in 1963 with
the single "Please Please Me." "Beatlemania" spread to
the United States in 1964 with the release of "I Want
to Hold Your Hand," followed by a sensational U.S.
tour. With youth poised to break away from the
culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the "Fab
Four," with their exuberant music and good-natured
rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift.
The Beatles sold millions of records and starred in
hit movies such as A Hard Day's Night (1964). Their
live performances were near riots, with teenage girls
screaming and fainting as their boyfriends nodded
along to the catchy pop songs. In 1966, the Beatles
gave up touring to concentrate on their innovative
studio recordings, such as 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Heart's Club Band, a psychedelic concept album that is
regarded as a masterpiece of popular music. The
Beatles' music remained relevant to youth throughout
the great cultural shifts of the 1960s, and critics of
all ages acknowledged the songwriting genius of the
Lennon-McCartney team.
Lennon was considered the intellectual Beatle and
certainly was the most outspoken of the four. He
caused a major controversy in 1966 when he declared
that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus,"
prompting mass burnings of Beatles' records in the
American Bible Belt. He later became an anti-war
activist and flirted with communism in the lyrics of
solo hits like "Imagine," recorded after the Beatles
disbanded in 1970. In 1975, Lennon dropped out of the
music business to spend more time with his
Japanese-born wife, Yoko Ono, and their son, Sean. In
1980, he made a comeback with Double-Fantasy, a
critically acclaimed album that celebrated his love
for Yoko and featured songs written by her.
On December 8, 1980, their peaceful domestic life on
New York's Upper West Side was shattered by
25-year-old Mark David Chapman. Psychiatrists deemed
Chapman a borderline psychotic. He was instructed to
plead insanity, but instead he pleaded guilty to
murder. He was sentenced to 20 years to life. In 2000,
New York State prison officials denied Chapman a
parole hearing, telling him that his "vicious and
violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be
acknowledged." He remains behind bars at Attica Prison
in New York State.
John Lennon is memorialized in "Strawberry Fields," a
section of Central Park across the street from the
Dakota that Yoko Ono landscaped in honor of her
husband.

history.com/tdih.do