On August 24, 1981, Mark David Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life for the murder of John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles.
On December 8, 1980, Chapman shot and killed the 40-year-old singer, songwriter, outside Lennon’s New York City apartment building, the Dakota, where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono and their young son Sean.
John Lennon signs an autograph for Mark Chapman (right) – his murderer. December 8, 1980.
Mark David Chapman turned 64 in May.
Chapman’s requests for parole have all been denied and he continues to serve time in a New York prison.
The Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin Blockade on this day in 1949.
It was on this day in 1932 that baby Lindbergh (below) was found more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s Hopewell, New Jersey mansion.
Burt Bacharach is a composer, songwriter, record producer, pianist, and singer who has composed hundreds of popular hit songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with popular lyricist Hal David. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach’s songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. As of 2014, he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits and is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music.
In Blacksburg, VA, on this day in 2007, a student killed 33 people at Virginia Tech before killing himself.
The 23-year-old student gunman Seung-Hui Cho.
In Texas City, TX. on this day in 1947, the French ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up, leaving 576 people dead.
On this day in 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returned to Russia to start Bolshevik Revolution after years of exile.
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977)
Comedic silent film icon Charlie Chaplin gained world fame for portraying his character, The Tramp (1915) and starred in The Great Dictator (1940) and Modern Times. He had acareer that lasted over 75 years, and became one of the most important people in film history.
On this day in 1996, Britain’s Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced that they were in the process of getting a divorce.
The Rolling Stones released their debut album on this day in 1964.
Michael Jordan played his last NBA game on this day in 2003.
Michael Jordan, who was on the bench and unlikely to enter the game, was re-inserted into the line-up by Washington Wizards coach Doug Collins with 2:35 left in the fourth quarter after the crowd of 20,000+ chanted Michael’s name.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – John Lennon’s killer will remain behind bars after being denied parole for the ninth time.
The New York state Board of Parole on Monday announced that it has again denied parole to Mark David Chapman, who on Dec. 8, 1980, shot and killed the former Beatle outside his luxury Manhattan apartment.
The 61-year-old Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a sentence of 20-years to life in Wende Correctional Facility in western New York.
John Lennon encounters Mark Chapman outside the Dakota Building, hours before Chapman killed the former Beatle.