Assassination of John F. Kennedy President Kennedy as his motorcade continued down Elm Street. About 80% of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots. A minority of the witnesses recognized the first gunshot they heard as weapon fire, but there was hardly any reaction to the first shot from a majority of the people in the crowd or those riding in the motorcade. Many bystanders later said that they heard what they first thought to either be a firecracker or the backfire of one of the vehicles shortly after the President had begun waving. Although some close witnesses recalled seeing the limousine slow down, nearly stop,
Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps Europe and planned the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination on November 22, 1963. Few American Presidents have quotes that are remembered long after their deaths, and Kennedy was among those few for saying to the nation, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." He was the second-youngest President (after