On October 9, 1980, to celebrate John Lennon’s 40th birthday and their son Sean Lennon’s 5th birthday (as they shared the same birthday), Yoko Ono hired an aircraft pilot to write a giant message in the sky above Manhattan and Central Park.
The planes spelled out “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN & SEAN” followed by “LOVE, YOKO” directly over the Dakota apartment building where they lived, visible across large portions of New York City.
The pilot, Wayne Mansfield, skywrote the exact same phrase nine times in total. The number nine held immense personal and numerological significance for John Lennon throughout his life.
The writing began around 5:00 PM. Earlier that day, John and Yoko had been inside the Hit Factory recording studio finishing up their upcoming album Double Fantasy. They returned home in a limousine just as crowds of fans gathered outside.
The beautiful, sweeping gesture captured the attention of thousands of New Yorkers looking up that evening and became a major news feature on U.S. television networks. Tragically, it would be John Lennon’s final birthday celebration before he was killed exactly two months later on December 8, 1980.
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