John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940. He grew up in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton, with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George Smith. His early interests were drawing and writing. John attended Liverpool Art College, and it was here that his interest in music began. He started his own band, The Quarrymen, with school friends and later, in 1957, he was joined by Paul McCartney. The rest, as they say, is history. John, Paul, and George Harrison formed The Beatles and rose to super stardom in the early 1960s. Their group was completed with the addition of Ringo Starr. He continued his career after The Beatles breakup in 1970 as a solo artist. John's music and lyrics influenced the world. His interest in writing and the arts also continued and he was successful as an author and artist. He championed the peace movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s and fought a long deportation battle to remain in the USA. For most of the mid to late 1970s John explored the normalcy of family life. He restarted his music career, and was on the verge of continued success, but sadly John Lennon was murdered at the age of 40 outside his home in New York City by a deranged fan on December 8, 1980. John was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and later in 1994 as a solo artist.