2. Nine-year-old John posing with his mother, Julia, in his cousin’s yard.
John lived with his aunt Mimi from the age of five, following his parents’ divorce,
though he and Julia reconnected in John’s teenage years.
Julia, who encouraged John’s love of music,
was hit and killed by a car when John was 17.
John wrote the Beatles song “Julia” about his mother, and named his son Julian after her.

3. While at a gig with his former band, The Quarrymen,
John met Paul McCartney and formed the Beatles.
The band’s most noteworthy early gigs took place at Liverpool’s famed Cavern Club, pictured here,
where they attracted a loyal audience and the eye of future manager Brian Epstein.
In this shot from February, 1961, a 20-year-old John, far right, takes the lead
while flanked by George Harrison and Paul McCartney, far left,
and original Beatles drummer Pete Best on drums.

4. By February, 1964, Beatlemania gripped England and North America,
so the Fab Four embarked on a British Invasion to the U.S.
Here, John leads the band in acknowledging the throngs of fans
who showed up in New York to greet them as they arrived in America for the first time.

5. On February 9, 1964, two days after arriving in New York, the Beatles made television history
by drawing a then-record 73 million viewers to watch them perform on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The band performed five songs in total that night 'All My Loving,' 'Till There Was You,'
'She Loves You,' 'I Saw Her Standing There' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.'
In a close-up of John during the broadcast, a graphic famously appeared on screen
that read, “Sorry girls, he’s married.” In this photo, the Fab Four flank Sullivan.

6. John and Cynthia Lennon, pictured here on a 1965 ski vacation in St Moritz,
met at the Liverpool College of Art when they were 18 and 19 respectively.
He had a girlfriend and she was engaged but they fell in love and married in 1962 —
a fact that Epstein tried in vain to keep secret from all the female fans swooning over John and his fellow Beatles.
John and Cynthia had one child — Julian — born in 1963, and the couple divorced in 1968
after Cynthia discovered John’s affair with Yoko Ono.

7.  Following a decade of performing together and establishing themselves
as the most influential rock band in music history, the Beatles disbanded in 1970.
But before they did, they played their final concert atop the Apple building
on London’s Savile Row on January 30, 1969.
The rooftop concert was reportedly John’s idea, and after closing out the set,
John quipped, “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves,
and I hope we passed the audition.”

8. John and Yoko embracing during their Montreal bed-in for peace on June 1, 1969. '
The protest, which took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel,
attracted cultural figures including Allen Ginsberg, Tommy Smothers and Timothy Leary
and featured the recording of the famous anti-war anthem “Give Peace a Chance” in the hotel room.

9. John spent a lot of time in Canada in 1969, including in September,
when he played the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert at the city’s Varsity Stadium
with Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band.
The concert line-up included an eclectic, intergenerational mix of stars,
from Chuck Berry to Little Richard to Alice Cooper and the headliners, The Doors.
Slumping ticket sales soared when John’s involvement was confirmed literally a day before the show,
and it’s widely believed that the positive reaction he received at this concert
afforded John the courage to return to England and quit the Beatles.
In this photo, John and Yoko sit by a Toronto pool
the day after the concert with fellow Plastic Ono band mates,
from left to right drummer Alan White, Eric Clapton (seated), and bassist Klaus Voorman.

10. In December 1969, John and Yoko returned to Canada,
including this stop on the 22nd in Montreal for a Vietnam War peace conference.
Yoko brandished a miniature version of the couple’s famous
“War Is Over (If You Want It)” poster while John offered a 'bag of laughter,'
which contained a recorder that played the sounds of laughter.

11. After their Montreal stop, John and Yoko travelled to Ottawa on Christmas Eve
to meet with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau at the Parliament Building f
or nearly an hour to discuss their world peace campaign.
Trudeau, evidently, was the only world leader to meet with the couple,
and John later stated that,
“If all politicians were like Mr. Trudeau, there would be world peace.”

12. In 1971, John recorded his most famous and celebrated solo album, Imagine,
including the title track, an enduring plea for peace that continues to
rank among the most beloved songs in the history of popular music.
The album also included tracks like 'Crippled Inside,' 'Jealous Guy,'
'Gimme Some Truth' and 'Oh My Love' and featured
instrumentals from fellow Beatle George Harrison.

13. In 1974, Elton John — at the height of his fame —
played piano on Lennon’s single “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”
and bet the former Beatle that if the tune hit number one on the charts
(Lennon was the only ex-Beatle at that point who hadn’t had a solo number one hit),
Lennon would have to perform live with Elton on stage at a concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Sure enough, the song topped the charts and a nervous Lennon joined Elton on stage
for a surprise appearance at MSG on Thanksgiving.
Lennon performed three songs with Elton — “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,”
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (the Beatles tune that Lennon wrote and Elton had recently covered)
and “I Saw Her Standing There” (prior to which Lennon quipped,
“We thought we'd do a number of an old, estranged fiance of mine, called Paul.
This is one I never sang. It's an old Beatle number, and we just about know it').
It would be the last live performance Lennon ever played
and is captured on Elton’s Here and There live double-album.

14.  John and Yoko had one child, son Sean Lennon,
who was born on his father’s birthday in 1975.
John delighted in retiring, partially at least, from public view and staying home to raise Sean,
and wrote a song for him, called “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy).”
In this photo, a two-year-old Sean takes a walk in New York City with his parents.

15.  In 1980, after years at home rearing Sean, John returned to the studio with Yoko Ono
and recorded the album Double Fantasy, which included songs like
“(Just Like) Starting Over,” 'Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy),' 'Watching the Wheels' and 'Woman.'
The album, which featured this loving photo of John and Yoko on the cover
and songs about love, family and looking forward to the second half of their lives together,
proved especially poignant three weeks after its release, when John was murdered.
Critics, who’d initially dismissed the album, gave it a second look following John’s passing
and its stock, not surprisingly, soared.
Just a few months later it won Album of the Year at the 1981 Grammy Awards.

John Lennon ~ 1940.10.09 - 1980.12.08

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