John Lennon: The world still remembers...
Singer, songwriter, musician, actor, activist, author, visionary, poet -- he would bear all titles on his slim shoulders, rewriting the rules of modern music and affecting a great many generations in the process.
His role in The Beatles notwithstanding, Lennon has long been recognised as one of the greatest icons of our time. When the BBC ran a poll a few years ago to name the 100 Greatest Britons, he came in eighth. Impressive, considering Charles Darwin came in fourth, William Shakespeare was fifth and Sir Issac Newton, sixth.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. A fascination with rock n' roll, brought Lennon and Paul McCartney closer. After Lennon joined the Liverpool College of Art, he met his first future wife, Cynthia Powell, and started a band called the Quarry Men with Paul McCartney and another friend, George Harrison.
The band changed its name a couple of times. They were Johnny and the Moondogs, then The Silver Beetles. Finally, they settled on The Beatles. In little over a decade, The Beatles -- John, Paul, George and Ringo Starr -- managed to top all kinds of charts in a number of countries, driving people to hysteria wherever they went.
The band visited India in search of peace and returned to England to create the self-titled masterpiece often referred to as The White Album.
It was somewhere around this time that Lennon fell in love with a Japanese artiste called Yoko. The woman the press would blame -- wrongly -- for the break-up of The Beatles. The band was soon finished. Lennon the peace-activist, however, was just waking up.
Following his split from The Beatles, Lennon and Yoko began a series of public protests against the Vietnam War. He returned his Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) to Queen Elizabeth II, and recorded his 'peace anthem' Give peace a chance.
In 1971, Imagine was released. While it was his most successful solo album, it is the title track that continues to adorn clothing even today. Other tracks followed, some vitriolic, like How do you sleep, others controversial, like Woman is the nigger of the world. Towards the end of 1975, he made a surprise appearance at an Elton John show in Madison Square Garden. It would be his last concert appearance.
On December 8, 1980, a deranged fan called Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon five times, a minute after getting his autograph. It happened a few steps outside his home, in New York. Lennon died on the way to hospital.
In 2000, the John Lennon Museum opened in Japan. In 2002, Liverpool airport was renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport. Earlier this year, a musical titled Lennon was created for Broadway. A John Lennon Park has been built in Cuba. His word still sells too. In July 2005, handwritten lyrics for All you need is love were auctioned for £600,000 in London.
Compiled by Cultural Correspondent