January 16:
Wings arrives in Tokyo for an 11 concert tour of Japan. Paul McCartney is arrested for possession of marijuana and jailed for 10 days.

January 21:
On the day the Wings concert tour was scheduled to start, the band members, without Paul and Linda, fly back to England.

January 25:
Paul McCartney is released from jail and deported to England.

February 18:
Shooting starts for the motion picture "Caveman" with Ringo Starr, in Durango, Mexico.

February 26:
Paul McCartney receives the award for "Outstanding Music Personality of 1979" at the British Rock and Pop Awards in London.

February 27:
Paul's "Rockestra Theme" is awarded a Grammy in the US.

March 24:
Capitol Records releases "The "Beatles Rarities" LP, the first authorized release of version 1 of "Love Me Do", with Ringo Starr on drums, in the US, 17 years after its UK release.

May 16:
Paul's LP "McCartney II" is released in the UK.

May 17:
NBC television's "Saturday Night Live" premieres Paul McCartney's video "Coming Up", introduced live by Paul and Linda by satellite from England.

May 19:
Ringo Starr and actress Barbara Bach, whom he had met during the "Caveman" filming in Mexico, are involved in a car accident in South London, escaping serious injury.

May 21:
"McCartney II", including a one-sided bonus promo for "Coming Up" (Live Version) is released in the US.
May 31:
The "McCartney II" LP hits number one on UK charts.

June 28:
Wings' single "Coming Up" (Live Version) tops the charts in the US.

August 1:
George Harrison founds "HandMade Films (Productions) Ltd".

September 19:
Paul McCartney's single "Temporary Secretary"/"Secret Friend" is released in the UK.

September 29:
In the US, Newsweek magazine publishes an interview with John Lennon.

October 13:
"The Beatles Ballads - 20 Original Tracks" is released in the UK.

October 15:
George Harrison founds "HandMade Films Distribution) Ltd.

October 24:
John and Yoko's " single "(Just like) Starting Over"/"Kiss Kiss Kiss" is released in the UK and three days later in the US.

November 3:
EMI Ltd.'s World Records mail order division releases "The Beatles Box" set of 8 LPs, featuring 126 Beatles recordings.

November 17:
John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Double Fantasy" LP is released simultaneously in the UK and the US.

November 28:
John Lennon declares in a deposition, taken for a lawsuit by Apple Corps Ltd. against the producers of the "Beatlemania" stage show, that he and the former Beatles were planning a reunion concert, to be filmed as a part of an autobiographical Beatles documentary "The Long and Winding Road".

December 4:
An interview with Paul by Vic Garbarini of "Musician" magazine, recorded earlier in the year, is released as an LP "The McCartney Interview" in the UK.

December 6:
Andy Peebles of the BBC does an interview with John Lennon, which will provide the framework for a 5 hour radio special.

December 8:
THE DAY WHEN THE MUSIC DIED
On the afternoon of 8 December 1980, at about 2:00 pm, photographer Annie Leibovitz went to Yoko Ono
and John Lennon's New York home at the Dakota Apartment complex, to do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone
magazine.

She had promised Lennon that a photo with Ono would make the front cover of the magazine, but initially
tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone, saying that "nobody wanted Yoko Ono on the cover". But John
insisted that both he and his wife be on the cover. After taking the pictures, Leibovitz left the apartment
around 3:30 pm.
Some time after that, Lennon gave what would be his last interview to a San Francisco DJ, Dave Sholin, for a
music show on the RKO Radio Network.

At 5:00 pm, John and Ono left the apartment to go to the Record Plant Studio, to mix the song "Walking on
Thin Ice"; an Ono song featuring Lennon on lead guitar.
As John and Yoko walked to their limousine, they were approached by several people seeking autographs,
among them, Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii.
It was common for fans to wait outside the Dakota to meet Lennon and ask for pictures or his autograph,
which John Lennon always pleasantly handed out.

Chapman silently handed Lennon a copy of the "Double Fantasy" album, and Lennon obliged with an
autograph. After signing the album, Lennon asked him, "Is this all you want?" Chapman smiled and nodded
in agreement. Photographer and Lennon fan, Paul Goresh, took a photo of the encounter.

(Mark David Chapman, as was learned later, had become a born-again Christian in 1970 and was incensed
by Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" remark, calling it blasphemy. He later stated he was also enraged by
"God", and "Imagine", even singing the latter with the altered lyric: "Imagine John Lennon dead."
By his own account, he had first come to New York to murder Lennon in October, but changed his mind and
returned home.)
 
The Lennons spent several hours at the Record Plant studio before returning to the Dakota at
approximately 10:50 pm. Lennon had decided against dining out so he could be home in time to say good
night to his five-year-old son, Sean, before going to the Stage Deli restaurant with Yoko. The Lennons left
their limousine on 72nd Street instead of driving into the more secure courtyard of the Dakota.
Jose Perdomo, the Dakota's doorman, and a nearby cab driver saw Chapman standing in the shadows by
the apartment complex's archway entry. Yoko walked ahead of John and into the reception area. As Lennon
passed by, he looked at Chapman briefly and continued on his way. Within seconds, Chapman turned and
fired five hollow-point bullets at Lennon's back, from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver in rapid
succession.

The first bullet missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. However,
two of the next bullets struck Lennon in the left side of his back, and two more penetrated his left shoulder.
Three of the four bullets passed completely through and exited the front of Lennon's body, resulting in a
total of seven gunshot wounds. While all four shots inflicted severe gunshot wounds, the two fatal wounds
were to his left lung and the left subclavian artery.
Lennon, bleeding profusely from his external wounds and also from the mouth, staggered up the few steps
to the lobby area and fell to the floor, scattering the arm-full of cassettes he had been carrying. Concierge
Jay Hastings first started to make a tourniquet; but upon ripping open Lennon's blood-stained shirt and
realizing the severity of his multiple injuries, covered Lennon's chest with his uniform's jacket, removed his
blood-covered glasses, and summoned the police.

(Based on statements made that night by NYPD Chief of Detectives James Sullivan, numerous radio,
television, and newspaper reports claimed at the time that, before firing, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon"
and dropped into a "combat stance". But court hearings and witness interviews do not include either "Mr.
Lennon" or the "combat stance" description. Chapman has said he did not remember calling out Lennon's
name before he shot him.)
According to one account, doorman Perdomo shook the gun out of Chapman's hand and kicked it across
the sidewalk. Rather than fleeing the scene, Chapman then removed his coat and hat in preparation for the
police arrival, to show he was not carrying any concealed weapons. Perdomo shouted at Chapman, "Do
you know what you've done?", to which Chapman calmly replied, "Yes, I just shot John Lennon."
The first policemen to arrive, in about two minutes, were Steve Spiro and Peter Cullen, who were at 72nd
Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota.
They found Chapman sitting "very calmly" on the sidewalk. They reported that Chapman had dropped the
revolver to the ground, and was holding a paperback book, J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". Chapman
had scribbled a message on the book's inside front cover: "To Holden Caulfield. This is my statement." (He
would later claim that his life mirrored that of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the book.)
Officers Bill Gamble and James Moran, arrived a few minutes later. They immediately carried Lennon into
their squad car and rushed him to Lucas-Roosevelt Hospital. Officer Moran said they placed Lennon on the
back seat. Moran asked "Do you know who you are?" There are conflicting accounts on what happened
next. In one account, Lennon nodded slightly and tried to speak, but could only manage to make a gurgling
sound, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter.

Dr. Stephan Lynn received Lennon in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital, and found he had no
pulse and was not breathing. Dr. Lynn and two other doctors worked for nearly 20 minutes, opening
Lennon's chest and attempting manual heart massage to restore circulation, but the damage to the blood
vessels around the heart was too great. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room at
the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 pm by Dr Lynn, (but a time of 11:07 pm has also been reported). The cause
of death was givenas hypovolemic shock, caused by the loss of more than 80% of blood volume. Dr. Elliott
M. Gross, the Chief Medical Examiner who examined Lennon's body, said in his report that no one could
have lived more than a few minutes with such multiple bullet injuries. As Lennon was hit four times with
hollow-point bullets, which expand upon entering and severely disrupt more tissue as they travel through
the target, Lennon's affected organs were virtually destroyed upon impact.

Yoko, who was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, and led away in shock after she learned that her husband was
dead, sobbing "Oh no, no, no, no... tell me it's not true."
Ono then asked the hospital not to report that Lennon was dead until she had informed their son, who was
at home at the time. She expressly said she did not want him to find out that his father was dead from the
television. Sean was not watching TV that night, so yoko was able to break the news to him herself. (The
following day, Ono issued a statement: "There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human
race. Please do the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean.")

As it happened, Alan Weiss, a reporter from WABC-TV, ABC's owned and operated station in New York City,
was in Roosevelt Hospital following a motorcycle accident earlier in the evening. When Lennon arrived,
Weiss called the ABC affiliate's assignment editor, Neil Goldstein. After he confirmed that Lennon was dead,
Weiss relayed it to Goldstein, unaware of Ono's request to delay reporting his death. Monday Night Football
executive producer Roone Arledge suggested they announce Lennon's death on-air. Howard Cosell
expressed apprehension over reporting Lennon's death on-air during a football show, but co-host Frank
Gifford convinced him it was the right thing to do. Coming out of a commercial break, after a brief set-up by
Gifford, Cosell made the announcement.
John Lennon was 40 years old.