Claim: John Lennon died in 1980.

John Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the members of the Beatles , for his subsequent solo career , and for his political activism and pacifism . On Monday , December 8 , 1980 , Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman in the archway of the Dakota , his residence in New York City . Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife , Yoko Ono .   After sustaining four major gunshot wounds , Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital . At the hospital , it was stated that nobody could have lived longer than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries . Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon 's death , crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota . Lennon was cremated at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale , New York , two days after his death ; the ashes were given to Ono , who chose not to hold a funeral for him . The first media report of Lennon 's death to a US national audience was announced by Howard Cosell , on ABC 's Monday Night Football .