John Lennon

Founder of the Beatles, peace activist, and solo artist.

John Winston Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital, the only child of Alfred and Julia Lennon.^[1] Across his career as a performer and songwriter, 25 of Lennon's singles reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.^[2] The 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year and a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music were both won by Double Fantasy, which ranks as Lennon's second most commercially successful album outside the Beatles.^[2]

Quick Facts

Birth name: John Winston Lennon
Born: 9 October 1940
Birthplace: Liverpool, England
Died: 8 December 1980
Place of death: New York City, US
Cause of death: Gunshot wounds
Resting place: Cremated; ashes scattered in Central Park, New York City
Education: Liverpool College of Art

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

At age 15, Lennon formed a skiffle group, the Quarrymen, named after Quarry Bank High School.^[3] The Beatles achieved mainstream success in the UK early in 1963.^[4] His debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), was received with praise by many music critics.^[5] Lennon and Ono moved to New York in August 1971 and immediately embraced US radical left politics.^[6]

Brought up in the Anglican faith, Lennon first attended Dovedale Primary School and subsequently passed the eleven-plus exam.^[7] Lennon's initial guitar, a budget-priced Gallotone Champion acoustic model, was purchased for him by his mother Julia in 1956.^[8] The initial encounter between Lennon and Paul McCartney occurred on 6 July at the Woolton garden fête of St Peter's Church, during the Quarrymen's second show.^[3]

What the cited sources add

A genealogist's book details Lennon's Welsh roots through his Victorian ancestors, John Millward and Mary Elizabeth Morris.^[9] The same source traces Lennon's ancestry back to Owain Glyndŵr and Llywelyn the Great.^[9] A draft of Lennon's letter returning his MBE was found tucked in a record sleeve from a £10 car boot haul.^[10] The letter states Lennon returned the MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing and its support of America in Vietnam.^[10]

An FBI account reports that in March 1972 Lennon's visa was revoked and deportation proceedings were filed.^[11] The same account notes that on 7 October 1975 the New York Supreme Court overturned Lennon's deportation order.^[11]

References

Wikipedia, "John Lennon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Harry 2000b, p. 504; Richard, "Inside the Beatles Family Tree", 2022; "Let It Be! 'Owain Glyndŵr was the ancestral uncle of John Lennon'", Nation.Cymru, 2025-12-08 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "John Lennon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "24th Annual GRAMMY Awards | GRAMMY.com", grammy.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "John Lennon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Harry 2000b, p. 504; Spitz 2005, p. 24: "The entire Stanley clan gathered nightly at Newcastle Road" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "John Lennon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Shennan 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "John Lennon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Madinger, Raille, Lennonology, Open Your Books 2015; Schaffner 1978, p. 86; Harry 2000b, p. 504; Riley 2002, p. 375; Schechter 1997, p. 106 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "John Lennon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rodriguez 2010, p. 48–49; Badman 2001, p. 44 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "John Lennon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Harry 2000b, p. 504; Norman 2008, p. 58; Spitz 2005, p. 24: "The entire Stanley clan gathered nightly at Newcastle Road"; Kenny, "The Making of John Lennon", Indiana University Press, 11 July 2018; "[Must Read Personalities] A life Story of John Lennon", by Mocktime Publication, 5 June 2022, p. 10; Spitz 2005, p. 24: "The entire Stanley clan gathered nightly at Newcastle Road"; "John Lennon's school 'hid any trace' of him after fame", www.bbc.com, 19 September 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "John Lennon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Spitz 2005, p. 24: "The entire Stanley clan gathered nightly at Newcastle Road"; Norman 2008, p. 58 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
"Let It Be! 'Owain Glyndŵr was the ancestral uncle of John Lennon'", Nation.Cymru, 2025-12-08. facts only, no text reused. nation.cymru
"John Lennon MBE refusal letter valued at £60k", BBC News, 27 October 2016. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
DeMain, "John Lennon and the FBI", Dangerous Liaisons: The FBI Files of Musicians. facts only, no text reused. performingsongwriter.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article John Lennon (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.