Video: 'John Lennon and Yoko Ono with Michael X'

(Wednesday, February 4, 1970) — John Lennon of The Beatles and his wife, Yoko Ono, exchanged a bag of their shorn hair for a pair of Muhammad Ali’s bloodstained boxing shorts today at a Black Power commune on Holloway Road, North London, called the “Black House.”

The Black House was the headquarters of a number of committees and movements, headed by Michael X, a self-styled black revolutionary and civil rights activist in 1960s London.

Video: 'John Lennon with Michael X - Interview'

The couple announced that the boxing shorts would be auctioned to raise money for their peace campaigning, although there is no evidence to suggest this ever happened.

Similarly, the hair was to be auctioned to raise money for The Black House.

Lennon and Ono had had their hair shorn in Denmark on Jan. 13, 1970. Lennon had hoped that the haircuts would allow them to travel incognito for a time, but the news leaked within days.