Known for his idealism and irreverence, John Winston Lennon (1940–1980) used rock and roll to tell his truth. Born in Liverpool during a World War II air raid, he met Paul McCartney at a 1957 church picnic—sparking a creative partnership that became The Beatles and forever reshaped popular music.

“Walking away is much harder than carrying on,” he once said. In 1969, he married Yoko Ono and continued to speak for peace through songs like Imagine (1971), echoing his dream of a gentler world.

On this day in 1975, Lennon’s son Sean was born—prompting him to step away from fame to change diapers, bake bread, and savor the quiet joy of fatherhood. “I just stopped talking to the press,” he joked. “It got to be pretty funny.”

Rejuvenated and ready to create again, he released (Just Like) Starting Over in 1980, followed by the album Double Fantasy. Today, fans still gather at Strawberry Fields in New York’s Central Park—across from where he lived and died—to remember his spirit of love, humor, and fearless honesty.