What are some fun facts about Yoko Ono?

Yoko Ono met John Lennon at her 1966 London art show, where he climbed a white ladder and read the tiny word YES through a magnifying glass. He loved its positive message. The kanji of Yoko Ono's given name mean "ocean child." She first met her father when she was two, after his bank had transferred him to San Francisco. At Tokyo's elite Gakushūin school, Ono was a classmate of Prince Akihito, the future emperor of Japan. Ono was the first woman admitted to the philosophy program of Gakushuin University, though she left after two semesters. In Ono's 1964 performance Cut Piece, she knelt silently on stage with scissors and invited audience members to cut pieces of her clothing off. Hearing the B-52's "Rock Lobster" in 1980 reminded John Lennon of Ono's sound, and in fact the band had been influenced by Ono. Yoko Ono was alive at the same time as Marie Curie — their lives overlapped for 1 year (1933–1934). Yoko Ono shares a birthday with Toni Morrison: both were born on February 18.

Photo: Marcela Cataldi Cipolla, CC BY 3.0

Yoko Ono

1933 – present · age 93^[1]^[2]

Art

Fun Facts About Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono met John Lennon at her 1966 London art show, where he climbed a white ladder and read the tiny word YES through a magnifying glass. He loved its positive message.^[1]^[3]^[4]
The kanji of Yoko Ono's given name mean "ocean child." She first met her father when she was two, after his bank had transferred him to San Francisco.^[1]
At Tokyo's elite Gakushūin school, Ono was a classmate of Prince Akihito, the future emperor of Japan.^[1]
Ono was the first woman admitted to the philosophy program of Gakushuin University, though she left after two semesters.^[1]
In Ono's 1964 performance Cut Piece, she knelt silently on stage with scissors and invited audience members to cut pieces of her clothing off.^[1]
Hearing the B-52's "Rock Lobster" in 1980 reminded John Lennon of Ono's sound, and in fact the band had been influenced by Ono.^[1]^[3]^[4]
Yoko Ono was alive at the same time as Marie Curie — their lives overlapped for 1 year (1933–1934).^[1]^[2]^[5]^[6]
Yoko Ono shares a birthday with Toni Morrison: both were born on February 18.^[1]^[2]^[7]^[8]

Yoko Ono is a Japanese artist, musician, activist, and filmmaker. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.^[1]

Contemporaries

Their World

Global Events

1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

1936 Spanish Civil War begins

1939 World War II begins

1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor; US enters WWII

1944 D-Day: Allied invasion of Normandy

1945 Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; WWII ends

1945 United Nations founded

1947 India and Pakistan gain independence

1948 State of Israel established

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted

1949 People's Republic of China proclaimed

1950 Korean War begins

1953 Watson and Crick discover DNA structure

1955 Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957 Sputnik launched; Space Age begins

1959 Cuban Revolution; Castro takes power

1961 Berlin Wall constructed

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

1963 Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

1964 Civil Rights Act signed in the United States

1969 Apollo 11: first humans walk on the Moon

1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and independence

1973 1973 oil crisis

1975 Fall of Saigon; Vietnam War ends

1979 Iranian Revolution

1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster

1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall

1989 Tiananmen Square protests

1990 Nelson Mandela released from prison

1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union

1994 Rwandan genocide

1994 End of apartheid; South Africa holds first free elections

1997 Dolly the Sheep cloned

1998 Good Friday Agreement signed in Northern Ireland

2001 September 11 attacks

2003 Human Genome Project completed

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami

2008 Global financial crisis

2010 Arab Spring begins

2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster

2015 Paris Agreement on climate change adopted

2016 United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union

2020 COVID-19 pandemic declared

2022 Russia invades Ukraine

In Their Field

1937 Picasso paints Guernica

1947 Jackson Pollock begins drip painting technique

1962 Andy Warhol exhibits Campbell's Soup Cans

1985 Guerrilla Girls begin challenging art-world sexism

2003 Banksy rises to prominence with street art

Questions About Yoko Ono

When was Yoko Ono born?

Yoko Ono was born on February 18, 1933, and is alive today.

How old is Yoko Ono?

Yoko Ono was born on February 18, 1933, and turned 93 on February 18, 2026.

What is Yoko Ono known for?

Yoko Ono is known for: Avant-garde artist, peace activist. Yoko Ono is a Japanese artist, musician, activist, and filmmaker. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.

Who was alive at the same time as Yoko Ono?

Yoko Ono's closest contemporary was Noam Chomsky. Their lives overlapped for 93 years.

Sources

Yoko Ono — Wikipedia. Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0
Yoko Ono (Q117012) — Wikidata
John Lennon — Wikipedia
John Lennon (Q1203) — Wikidata
Marie Curie — Wikipedia
Marie Curie (Q7186) — Wikidata
Toni Morrison — Wikipedia
Toni Morrison (Q72334) — Wikidata
Portrait: Yokoono2.jpg — Wikimedia Commons. Marcela Cataldi Cipolla, CC BY 3.0