Today in 1980, John Lennon was murdered outside his New York apartment home. Returning from the recording studio in the evening, Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark David Chapman.
The severity of the gunshots gave Lennon no chance of survival. The head of the emergency department at the Roosevelt hospital said “If Lennon had been shot this way in the middle of the operating room with a whole team of surgeons ready to work on him... he still wouldn't have survived his injuries.”
The following day, Yoko Ono issued a statement saying "There is no funeral for John. Later in the week we will set the time for a silent vigil to pray for his soul. We invite you to participate from wherever you are at the time. ... John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him.
Per Ono's wishes, on 14 December, millions of people around the world paused for ten minutes of silence to remember Lennon, including 30,000 people gathered in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool, and over 225,000 people at Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, close to the scene of the shooting. For those ten minutes, every radio station in New York City went off the air.
Here is John Lennon, live in 1975 performing Imagine
