The Death of John Lennon in 1980

We were really celebrating, the three of us," said producer Jack Douglas, who spent the evening of December 8th, 1980, with John Lennon and Yoko Ono at a New York recording studio working on Ono's new single, "Walking on Thin Ice." "On Monday evening, it seemed like everything was in gear and just perfect." Lennon's friend, producer and label head David Geffen dropped by with the news that Lennon and Ono's Double Fantasy album had gone gold after two weeks out and had scored a Number One spot on the U.K. charts. Lennon "was full of chitchat," according to Douglas, and talked about writing some material for Ringo Starr and putting out another album with his wife that would contain eight leftover tracks recorded that summer during the Double Fantasy sessions. "We were going to master 'Thin Ice' as a single the next day," said Douglas. "The last thing John said to me was, 'See you tomorrow morning, bright and early.' "

John and Yoko left the studio at around 10:30 p.m. and headed home to the Dakota, a posh apartment building on 72nd Street and Central Park West, where they had lived for nine years. They got out of a limousine shortly before eleven, and, as they walked through an archway leading into the Dakota's courtyard, a young man named Mark David Chapman called out, "Mr. Lennon," pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and fired five times at Lennon's back. Four of the shots hit Lennon, who said, "I've been shot," stumbled up a set of steps and then collapsed. After being rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, John Winston Lennon was pronounced dead at the age of forty.

As news wires began buzzing with word that the former Beatle had been shot, hundreds of fans congregated at the hospital and outside the Dakota. Some appeared in pajamas, bathrobes and slippers. Fans wept openly, while others held lighters in the air or joined voices to sing "All My Loving."

The following day, Ono released a statement saying, "There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean." A vigil was planned for Sunday, December 14th, when mourners could assemble to pay their last respects. Reports estimated that the attendance at vigils around the world was in the millions: 30,000 in Liverpool, where Lennon grew up; 2,000 in Chicago; 4,500 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver; several thousand in Melbourne, Australia. The largest vigil was held in Lennon's adopted hometown of New York. At 2 p.m. on that brisk afternoon, 100,000 fans observed ten minutes of silence in Central Park, which ended with "Imagine" being played over the loudspeakers.