Kennedy's assassination
Millions
of Americans can never forget where they were or what they were doing
when they heard that John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey
Oswald in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy's death and the
subsequent period of mourning transfixed the nation, in part because
television brought the events clearly, immediately, and constantly into
American homes.
John F. Kennedy was shot to death by an assassin on Nov. 22, 1963, as he rode through the streets of Dallas, Tex. His death continued the unhappy coincidence that, since William H. Harrison, every American President elected in a year ending in “0” had died while in office. These Presidents and the years of election were Harrison (1840), Abraham Lincoln (1860), James A. Garfield (1880), William McKinley (1900), Warren G. Harding (1920), and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1940). Only one President elected in a year ending in "0" has not died in office. That President was Ronald Reagan, who was elected in 1980.
The death of the President
Kennedy came to Texas accompanied by his wife and Vice President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson. The chief purpose of his trip was to heal a split in the Texas Democratic Party before the 1964 Presidential campaign in which Kennedy planned to run for a second term. The Kennedy party left Washington, D.C., on Thursday, November 21, and flew to San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth. At 11:37 a.m. the next day, the President’s plane arrived in Dallas after a short trip from Fort Worth.
Plans called for the President, Mrs. Kennedy, Johnson, and others to travel in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas to the Dallas Trade Mart. Kennedy was scheduled to speak there at a luncheon. After leaving the plane, Kennedy entered an open limousine for the trip to the Trade Mart. The President sat in the rear seat on the right side of the car. His wife, Jacqueline, sat on his left. Texas Governor John B. Connally sat in a “jump” seat in front of the President, and Mrs. Connally sat to her husband’s left.
Behind the President’s car was a limousine filled with Secret Service agents. Vice President and Mrs. Johnson rode in the third car, also accompanied by Secret Service men. Many other special security precautions had been taken. Dallas had a reputation as a center for people who strongly opposed Kennedy. But friendly, cheering crowds lined the streets.
At 12:30 p.m., the cars approached an expressway for the last leg of the trip. Suddenly, three shots rang out and the President slumped down, hit in the neck and head. Connally received a bullet in the back. Mrs. Kennedy held her stricken husband’s head in her lap as the limousine raced to nearby Parkland Hospital.
Doctors worked desperately to save the President, but he died at 1:00 p.m. without regaining consciousness. Doctors said that Kennedy had no chance to survive when brought into the hospital. Governor Connally, although seriously wounded, later recovered.
The new President
Television and radio flashed the news of the shooting to a shocked world. Vice President Johnson raced to the hospital and remained until Kennedy died. Then, he went to the airport where the presidential plane waited. Mrs. Kennedy and the coffin holding her husband’s body arrived later. At 2:39 p.m., U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes administered the oath of office to Johnson, who became the 36th President of the United States. As Johnson took the oath in the airplane, he was flanked by his wife and by Mrs. Kennedy.
Then the plane carrying the new chief executive and his wife, the body of the dead President, and the late President’s widow returned to Washington. When the plane arrived, Johnson told the nation: “This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed…”
The death of Oswald
Witnesses said the shots that killed the President came from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository, a building along the route of the motorcade. Police raced into the building, but could not find the killer. Then they began a search for an employee of the building who had left the scene a few minutes after the shooting. About 1:15 p.m., the employee, Lee Harvey Oswald, is said to have shot and killed a Dallas policeman, J. D. Tippit, while resisting arrest.
Oswald was finally arrested in a theater a short while later, and was charged with the murders of President Kennedy and Tippit. Oswald had been given a hardship discharge from the U.S. Marines and had once tried to become a Soviet citizen. An admitted Marxist, Oswald had a Soviet wife. He also had been active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a group that supported Cuba's Communist dictator Fidel Castro.
The police questioned Oswald for two days, but he denied both murders. Dallas police claimed that the evidence against Oswald was overwhelming. The murder weapon, an Italian rifle with a telescopic sight, was found hidden in the School Book Depository. The rifle had been purchased by Oswald from a mail-order firm for $12.78. Oswald's palm prints were found on the weapon.
On Sunday, November 24, two days after the assassination, Oswald was scheduled to be taken from the Dallas city jail to the county jail. As he was being led to an armored car for the trip, a Dallas nightclub owner, Jack Ruby (or Rubinstein), stepped out of the crowd and shot Oswald to death. A nationwide television audience witnessed the shooting. Oswald was taken to the same hospital where the President passed away. He died at 1:07 p.m., 48 hours after the President's death.