What happened on the day John Lennon died? (Picture: Evening Standard/Getty Images)

The world lost a legend 36 years ago.

Quiz: Do you think you know the lyrics to John Lennon’s Imagine?

December 8, 1980 was the fateful day John was murdered by a crazed fan as he tried to enter his New York apartment.

But what actually happened?

On the night he died John and his wife Yoko had been having a night on the town. After enjoying dinner, they decided to pop back to their apartment to say goodnight to their son Sean.


John and his son Julian (Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Usually, the couple would have got out of their limo using a secure entrance to the Dakota Building in Strawberry Fields, but on this occasion they stepped out onto 72nd Street.

Mark Chapman was there waiting for the 40-year-old and his wife. Lennon and Chapman had met – the singer had signed an autograph for him earlier that day.



After months of stalking The Beatles star, Chapman had flown for one last time to New York from Hawaii – he’d made the trip several times over preceding months – and lay in wait with a Charter Arms .38 pistol, which he’d smuggled in his luggage.

Mark David Chapman is seen in this handout photo taken May 15, 2012 from the New York State Department of Corrections and released to Reuters (Picture: Reuters)

He shot at the musician five times, four of which hit his target.

John did not die instantly. Some reports claim he then attempted to climb the steps of his building to get help, but collapsed.

When police arrived, Lennon was lying face down in a pool of blood. NYPD officer Tony Palma picked up Lennon with the help of his partner Herb Frauenberger and dragged him to their squad car.

Meanwhile Chapman, 25 at the time, calmly removed his coat and waited to be arrested.

John, pictured with wife Yoko, died at 11pm on December 8, 1980 (Photo by George Stroud/Express/Getty Images)

A team of doctors then spent 15 minutes trying to resuscitate Lennon in the hospital, but his injuries proved too much and he died at 11pm.

Chapman was later sentenced to 20 years in prison. He admitted he’d funded his stalking trips by selling a Norman Rockwell painting. He bragged at the time of his arrest that it had involved ‘incredible stalking’ and ‘incredible planning.’

His reason for orchestrating such tragedy? He wanted the ‘bright light of fame, of infamy, notoriety was there. I couldn’t resist it.’

36 years on Yoko still lives in the Dakota building.

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