John Lennon's 70th Birthday to Be Celebrated Around the World on Saturday

Saturday, October 9th will mark what would have been the 70th birthday of John Lennon.  In honor of that milestone, many activities have been scheduled around the world to celebrate the life of the late former Beatle, who was murdered on December 8th, 1980 when he was 40 years old.  On Saturday, Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, will be in Reykjavik, Iceland to light the Imagine Peace Tower at 3:00 p.m. ET.  You can watch the event live online by going to ImaginePeace.com.  She'll also hold a concert with her band, The Plastic Ono Band, after the lighting ceremony.

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If you happen to be in New York City on Saturday, a special free screening of the documentary LennoNYC will be held at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park at 7:00 p.m. EST.  The documentary focuses on Lennon's life in the Big Apple during the 1970s.  It will also air nationally on PBS on November 22nd.  Also, the film Nowhere Boy, featuring Kick-Ass actor Aaron Johnson portraying Lennon, will open in theaters today.  The movie focuses on Lennon's life before he found fame with the Beatles.  Finally, in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool, England, his son Julian and his first wife, Cynthia, will help to unveil an 18-foot "Peace and Harmony" tower in the city's center.

But the celebrations don't end on Saturday.  On November 2nd, a benefit concert at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood, California will feature Lennon's songs while raising money for the Grammy Museum and the organization WHY Hunger, which fights hunger and poverty worldwide.  An all-star Lennon tribute concert will take place November 12th at the Beacon Theatre in New York City and will feature performances from Jackson Browne, Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper and others.  And on December 9th in Liverpool, a tribute concert called "Lennon Remembered" will help to raise money for three separate charities: the Alder Hey "Imagine" Appeal, Radio City's Cash for Kids, and the Mathew Street Festival.

Yoko Ono, who has spearheaded these global celebrations and also oversaw the current re-release of Lennon's solo work, says that her husband's message "is so appropriate now [that] it's almost frightening," and adds, "Maybe, on a subconscious level, he knew that his voice and his words [were] going to be very, very important one day."  While Ono says she now realizes that Lennon was "a very special songwriter for us all [and] for the world," she admits that she feels "a bit guilty" that she didn't constantly tell her husband how talented he was when he was alive.  She also says she's still surprised by the impact that his songs, like "Imagine," are still having to this day.

Ono is also asking everyone to jump on Twitter on Saturday and tweet a million wishes for peace, in John's memory.  You can send your tweets to @IPTower.

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