Fans Mark Beatle John Lennon's 70th Birthday

Fans around the world are celebrating what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday.

The former Beatle's widow Yoko Ono is urging people "to learn to love each other in peace" as the music legend would have wished.

In a message she said of her late husband: "He had a very painful childhood in which he hardly saw his mother or his father.

"But, later, he managed to turn his pain around to give the world many beautiful songs and important messages which changed our heads and the way of our lives.

I know John was not expecting so much love to still come from you. But he would have been very happy to know it.

"May all of us heal ourselves and learn to love each other in peace."

Ono is also encouraging fans to send one million messages of peace, by email, post or via Twitter.

Fans are remembering the late Beatle at various locations including his home town of Liverpool and a shrine in Central Park, New York, his adopted home.

Ono herself was leading a celebration in Iceland with a series of events, including a performance by the Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, alongside their son Sean.

She was also presenting awards to figures chosen for their contribution to world peace with a biennial award - the Lennon Ono Grant for Peace - created in 2002.

Afterwards she was to switch on the Imagine Peace Tower, an illuminated memorial on an island close to the Icelandic capital Reykjavik.

The tower will remain lit until December 8, the anniversary of Lennon's death.

It is thought that fellow Beatles Ringo Starr and George Harrison's widow Olivia may also attend the event.

Lennon was murdered in 1980 by Mark Chapman who is still imprisoned for the crime.

He was shot dead outside his home in the Dakota building, close to Central Park in New York, which Ono still calls home.