On Dec. 8, 1980 — 45 years ago — Howard Cosell interrupted the broadcast of a "Monday Night Football " matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots to tell the audience about "an unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the west side of New York City, the most famous perhaps of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival."

About 100 people gathered on a frigid afternoon Monday in Central Park to commemorate the life of the musician and activist, not far from the Dakota, the Upper West Side apartment building where Lennon lived and where he was killed . Some were young, born decades after the fact. Some, older, remembered where they were when they

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