Tuesday, May 26 marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the couple’s famous “Bed In” in suite # 1742 of Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel, and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is commemorating the event in rock history with an exhibit titled “Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John and Yoko.”

Organized with Ono, the exhibit features photos, videos, films and artworks depicting the couple’s message of peace. Visitors will also be able to play “Imagine” on a white piano, and write down their wishes on scraps of paper and then tie them to Ono’s Wish Tree.

The 1969 Montreal event may be the most famous John & Yoko Bed-In, but it wasn’t the first time the couple took to the sheets to promote world peace. That took place in Amsterdam during the days following the couple’s wedding on March 20, 1969.

But it was the Montreal Bed-In that resulted in a famous John Lennon song. At one time during the Bed-In a reporter asked Lennon what he and Ono were attempting to do. To which Lennon responded, “All we are saying, is give peace a chance.”

Although Lennon’s answer to the reporter was spontaneous, the Beatle liked the phrase so much he soon began writing lyrics based upon it.

After singing the newly written song several times during the Bed-In, Lennon set up a few microphones and a portable tape recorder on June 1 and got down to business. But he wasn’t doing it solo. Ono was there, of course, but so were several celebrities, including Timothy Leary, Dick Gregory, Petula Clark and The Smothers Brothers, with Tommy Smothers accompanying Lennon on acoustic guitar.

“Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John and Yoko runs through June 21. For more information, please click here for The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Web site.