Top 10 Celebrity Funerals
He Gave Peace a Chance
John Lennon didn't have a funeral. When the former Beatle was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980, his wife Yoko Ono decided against an organized memorial service. Instead, she asked people around the world to "pray for John's soul" at a designated time. At 2 p.m. E.T. on Dec. 14, 1980, fans gathered in public squares from Melbourne to Liverpool and observed 10 minutes of silence in a global outpouring of goodwill. In New York City, more than 100,000 people assembled on Central Park's grassy slopes and turned the memorial into a daylong affair. Vendors sold Lennon merchandise and musicians played their favorite Beatles tunes. But at 2 o'clock, the entire park went silent. The city had assigned 300 police officers to the event, but the gathering was peaceful and went off without a hitch.