The Kennedy Assassination

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, had been in office two years, 10 months and two days on November 22, 1963, when an assassin’s bullet ended his life in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy, on a pre-campaign trip to supposedly hostile Texas, had been greeted warmly by enthusiastic crowds at every stop. Upon their arrival in Dallas, President and Mrs. Kennedy, accompanied by Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife, were driven slowly through the downtown streets on their way to a scheduled speech at the Dallas Trade Mart. At 12:30 p.m., as the open limousine traveled through Dealey Plaza past the Texas School Book Depository, Kennedy was shot. Within the hour, Kennedy was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital and by 2 p.m., Dallas police had arrested Lee Harvey Oswald as the suspected assassin. At 2:38 p.m. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.

Related Article: Eyewitness Accounts of the Events Surrounding JFK’s Assassination

Photo: AT DEALEY PLAZA/DOROTHY MURPHY COLLECTION

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