Photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's “Bed-In for Peace” in 1969

During the Vietnam War, in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held two week-long Bed-Ins for Peace in Amsterdam and Montreal, which were their non-violent ways of protesting wars and promoting peace. The idea is derived from a “sit-in”, in which a group of protesters remains seated in front of an establishment until they are evicted, arrested, or their demands are met.

Knowing that their wedding would cause a huge stir in the press, John Lennon and Yoko Ono decided to use their honeymoon to help champion world peace. On march 25, 1969, five days after their wedding, the duo climbed into the bed of room 902 at the Amsterdam Hilton and called the media.

Having held their first bed-in in Amsterdam, Ono and Lennon staged a second event in Montreal, where they stayed in rooms 1738-40-02 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

In between the two bed-ins, Ono and Lennon held their “Bagism” press conference in Vienna Austria. In their view, by living in a bag, a person could not be judged on the basis of appearance.

Because of their well known proclivity for appearing in the nude, the press assumed that Ono and Lennon would have sex in front of the cameras. Instead, the two appeared in pyjamas and talked about world peace.

Many people, over the years have said that the constant presence of Yoko Ono with John Lennon contributed to the break up of the Beatles.

During their bed-ins, Ono and Lennon invited the press to their rooms from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for seven days.

Ono and Lennon’s bed-ins, in addition to being protests against violence, have also been called performance art.

Many journalists didn’t take Ono and Lennon's bed-ins seriously, saying they were merely publicity stunts.

On June 1, 1969, Ono and Lennon recorded the song “Give Peace A Chance” in their Montreal hotel room, accompanied by a roomful of people that included Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, and members of the Canadian Radha Krishna Temple. The song became popular, reaching no. 14 on the Billboard chart.

(Photos: Bettmann/Corbis)