Dec. 8: John Lennon died on this date in 1980...

He was murdered 30 years ago in New York City. He would be 70 had he lived.

Born in Liverpool, England, Lennon was involved in the skiffle craze in England as a teenager. His first band, The Quarrymen, evolved into The Beatles in 1960. After the Beatles parted ways, Lennon launched a solo career and produced critically acclaimed albums,  including John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine.

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Born during a German air-raid, John's mother, Julia, handed the care of Lennon over to her sister after the latter registered a complaint with Liverpool's Social Services. In July 1946, Lennon's father, a seaman,  visited Smith and took his son to Blackpool, secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him. Lennon's mother followed them, and, after a heated argument, his father forced the five-year-old to choose between his parents. Lennon chose his father. As his mother walked away, Lennon began to cry and followed her. Lennon then lost contact with his father for 20 years.

Lennon moved to New York City in 1971, where his solo album sales in the United States alone stand at 14 million units, and as performer, writer, or co-writer he is responsible for 27 number one singles on the US Hot 100 chart.

In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth, and in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

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Lennon's criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon's administration to deport him, while his songs were adapted as anthems by the anti-war movement. Disengaging himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to his family, Lennon reemerged in 1980 with a comeback album, Double Fantasy, but was murdered three weeks after its release.

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