Kennedy assassinated in 1963

Historical background

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassinated. Lyndon b. Johnson becomes the 36th President of the United States. Amid cheering crowds as he drove through downtown Dallas, Mr Kennedy fell before the assassin’s bullets fired from a warehouse along the motorcade’s route. A nation is bowed in grief. The world mourns. A sense of shocked disbelief swept the nation when the news broke that 46-year-old Mr Kennedy had been assassinated. Men and women wept unashamedly in the streets. Then came grief and revulsion. Bells rang and flags were lowered to half-mast to commemorate the fourth president of the United States to lose his life to an assassin. Messages of sympathy poured in from world leaders. The youngest man ever elected President of the United States, Mr Kennedy was a best-selling author at 23, a war hero at 26, a US Representative at 29, a Senator at 35. A scion of one of the nation’s wealthiest families, he avoided a life of ease to devote himself to public service. He carried out many difficult problems of his office with a skill that brought stature to the presidency. Now he is dead. The people mourn.