Liverpool and New York will honour pop icon John Lennon today with floral and musical tributes and a candlelit vigil close to where he was shot dead 25 years ago.
John Lennon in 1980
In a ceremony in the centre of Liverpool, fans and officials will create a shrine beneath a statue of the legendary Beatle, gunned down in New York by a fan in the presence of his wife Yoko Ono.
Later in the day, there will be a memorial service for the man who created some of the best-known tunes in pop and is considered one of the most influential songwriters of all time.
In New York, hundreds of mourners are expected to gather at the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park and light candles.
Friends in Liverpool remembered Lennon with fondness but also felt he distanced himself from them after meeting Ono, the woman who many fans blame for breaking up the Beatles in 1970.
Both Lennon's first wife, Cynthia, and their son Julian recently voiced their sense of rejection when Lennon left them for Ono.
Cynthia said earlier this year that she and Julian were "airbrushed" from the Beatles' story and that Ono made it clear she did not want her in New York after Lennon's death.