John Lennon was returning home to the Dakota apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side with Yoko Ono after a recording session when Mark David Chapman, who had asked Lennon for an autograph hours earlier, fired five shots. Lennon was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. The murder shocked the world and turned Central Park's nearby Strawberry Fields into an impromptu shrine.
Chapman had spent the day loitering outside the Dakota with a copy of Lennon's new album 'Double Fantasy,' which Lennon signed for him around 5 p.m., unaware he was signing for his own killer. Chapman later said a part of him wanted Lennon to talk him out of it, but Lennon simply thanked him and got into a car.
When Lennon and Ono returned near 11 p.m., Chapman called out 'Mr. Lennon' and fired a .38 revolver five times, four bullets striking Lennon in the back and shoulder. A doorman kicked the gun from Chapman's hand; Chapman stayed at the scene reading J.D. Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye' until police arrived.
News anchor Howard Cosell broke into ABC's Monday Night Football broadcast to announce Lennon's death, stunning American viewers mid-game. Within hours, thousands gathered outside the Dakota in freezing weather, singing 'Imagine' and 'All You Need Is Love.' Yoko Ono later designated a section of Central Park across the street as Strawberry Fields, which remains a pilgrimage site for fans decades later.
Key people: John Lennon, Mark David Chapman, Yoko Ono