22 November 1963: the Assassination​ of JFK

It used to be said that everyone could say where they were when they heard the news that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was dead. It’s now 55 years since that shocking afternoon in Dallas, Texas, and there are obviously fewer people alive who can attest where they were that fateful afternoon.

The President and his party, which included his wife Jackie, Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie, travelling in the first car. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife followed in an accompanying car in the motorcade.

The Kennedys had spent the night of the 21 November in Fort Worth. The presidential party took a thirteen-minute flight from Carswell Air Force Base to Dallas and then drove towards the afternoon’s engagement at the Trade Mart for a lunch where the President was expected to speak.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Crowds of people lined the streets of Dallas to catch a glimpse of the President and his wife. The presidential car entered Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As the car passed the Texas Book Depository the President was fatally shot. He was hit in the neck and head before slumping across towards his wife. Governor John Connally was shot in the back, he would eventually recover from his injuries.

Panic ensued as Jackie Kennedy first tried to exit the rear of the vehicle before the car sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the medical team were unable to save the President. John F. Kennedy was given the last rites of the Roman Catholic church and was pronounced dead at 1 p.m.

The President was returned to Washington in a coffin later that day on Air Force One. On the same flight, Lyndon B. Johnson swore the oath of office at 2:38 p.m. President John F. Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetary on 25 November 1963.




17 thoughts on “22 November 1963: the Assassination​ of JFK

    1. It’s out of my lifetime too, but my grandmother died on the 18th. Mum always said it was the same week as Kennedy and when I did my research it proved correct. I can’t imagine the news being announced to primary school-aged kids!

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      1. It doesn’t seem right. People complain that the pc brigade ruin things today but when you look at that example and there are countless others, I’m glad that today’s sensibilities are more sensitive to others’ possible distress.

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  1. I was in grade two and the principal who was a nun, came into the classroom and told us the president had been shot and we should pray for him. We knew it was a shocking thing that had happened. Later my mother made us watch some of the funeral on tv as she said it was part of history. I suppose the younger generation will remember where they were when 911 happened. You don’t forget those things that shake the world, and our sense of security.

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    1. Wow, again news released in school. I suppose that is normal, it just seems odd to me as my children are now older so I’m out of that environment these days. No, those paradigm-shifting events are usually embedded in our memories.

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  2. I was in study hall in high school. Hard to believe that my grandchildren don’t even know much about this. Kind of like my parents always remembered where they were when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred but to my generation it was just history taught in school.

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