When John Lennon, the
musical maestro turned peace activist who emerged as a global icon in the 1970s
was shot dead on December 8, 1980, the United States was hopped up on a brutal contest
between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots. Patriots’ placekicker
John Smith was warming up for a field goal attempt and as he did, the world
outside the stadium changed. Legendary US broadcaster Howard Cosell spoke of an
unspeakable tragedy on the microphone: John Lennon was shot dead.

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“An unspeakable tragedy
confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his
apartment building on the West Side of New York City — the most famous, perhaps,
of all The Beatles — shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead
on arrival,” the United States of America heard in shock.

The decision to report
John Lennon’s death during a nail-biting moment in the NFL match was a call
taken by Cosell, who believed he could not keep news of such magnitude from Americans.
But one person, among others, who was not happy with the news getting out was
Yoko Ono — John Lennon’s wife.

According to archives,
Yoko Ono had clearly instructed hospital staff that the news of John Lennon’s
death should not be reported until she could tell her five-year-old son Sean.

A musical genius of his
time, the 40-year-old John Lennon who sang of a world where there is no heaven,
hell, religion, countries, and sought the brotherhood of man was shot dead by
an angry fan at the musician’s lavish lifestyle inspired by the fictional
character Holden Caulfield from the 1951 JD Salinger novel, “The Catcher in the
Rye”.

John Lennon and Yoko
Ono were returning home from a recording session when Chapman fired five
hollow-point bullets from a .38 special revolver, four of which hit Lennon in
the back.

Lennon was cremated the
very next day and Ono asked that, instead of a funeral, 10 minutes silence was
observed around the world on December 14.