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John Winston Lennon was born to Fred and Julia on 9th October 1940. At the time of his birth, his mother felt unable to look after him so she asked John's Aunt Mimi and Uncle George to look after him. Fred Lennon who had not been around at the time of John's birth, returned to Liverpool when John was five years old and made plans to emigrate to New Zealand with John befor Julia intervened. John was returned to his Aunt Mimi. Throughout his childhood, John felt unwanted by his parents which may have been responsible for his rebelliousness. He never had an interest in school, preferring to draw cartoons rather than concentrating on his studies.

John finally went to the Liverpool Art College after his Aunt Mimi persuaded the principal at Quarry Bank Grammar School to write a letter of recommendation for John.

John: "My whole life was a case of -'I couldn't care less.' It was a joke as far as I was concerned. Art was the only thing I could do, and my headmaster told me that if I didn't go to art school, I might as well give up life."

John's interest in music began around 1955, as the rest of Britain seemed to be joining "Skiffle Groups" that would play on the streets. John's interest soon became an obsession. He asked his Aunt Mimi to buy him a guitar but when she refused, he turned to Julia. She bought him one and even taught him some chords. The first song that he learned to play was "That'll Be The Day".

Aunt Mimi's ban on practicing in her house failed to quench John's love of music and he often played in the porch at the front of the house. Pete Shotton and a few other friends from the Liverpool Institute helped John to form a band of their own - "The Quarrymen". They played for free or for a small fee at local parties. The band's first major gig was at Woolton Parish Church where Ivan Vaughan introduced John to Paul McCartney.

By 1960, The Quarrymen had been renamed as "The Beatles" and it now had three new members, George Harisson, Pete Best and Paul McCartney. They spent most of this year performing in Hamburg. When they returned to Liverpool in 1961 to play in The Cavern Club, Brian Epstein was asked by John to be their manager. A deal with Parlophone Records soon followed but John had to fire Pete Best as drummer if this deal was to go through. This was because of George Martin's lack of confidence in Pete. Ringo Starr soon replaced him.

At the time that success seemed inevitable, John married Cynthia Powell on August 23rd 1962. Eight months later, she gave birth to Julian. However, Cynthia would become aware of John's affair with Yoko Ono through reading about it. She filed for a divorce which became final in November 1968. He susequently married Yoko Ono in March 1969. John disappeared from public life after the birth of his second Son, Sean in 1975. In August 1980, John released his first album in 6 years, "Double Fantasy".

On December 8th, 1980, at around 11 o'clock p.m., Mark David Chapman, who had been waiting outside John's apartment building in New York, shot John as he was returning from a late night recording session. He was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Millions mourned the loss of one of the greatest musicians of all time.

NEWSPAPER REPORTS ON JOHN LENNON'S DEATH