John F. Kennedy anniversary: A look at images from his lifetime
Around 12:30 p.m. Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, seated next to his wife.
- Local businessman Jack Ruby, foreground, approaches and fires a gun at Lee Harvey Oswald, center, in handcuffs, as he is escorted to the Dallas city jail via the underground garage of the Dallas police headquarters, Texas, on Nov. 24. Oswald is escorted by detectives Jim Leavelle, left, who is handcuffed to Oswald, and L.C. Graves, right. Oswald later dies at a hospital. (Jack Beers/Dallas Morning News/MCT)
- Oswald is charged with the murder of President Kennedy at 11:26 p.m. (CST). (Dallas Police Department/Dallas Municipal Archives/MCT)
- President Kennedy’s body enters the White House to lie in state early on Nov. 23, 1963. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- The honor guard places President Kennedy’s casket in the East Room of the White House, Those watching include Hugh Auchincloss, Janet Auchincloss, Kenneth O’Donnell, Larry O’Brien, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Naval Aide Captain Tazewell Shepard, Jean Kennedy Smith, Sargent Shriver, Jacqueline Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and others. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President Kennedy’s casket lies in state in at the White House, attended by an honor guard on Nov. 23. (Robert Knudsen/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President Kennedy’s casket lies in state in the East Room of the White House, attended by two members of the honor guard. (Abbie Rowe/National Park Service/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President Kennedy’s body is borne from the White House to the U. S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 24. (U. S. Army Signal Corps/John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library and Museum/MCT)
- Jacqueline Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Stephen Smith, Jean Kennedy Smith and Secret Service agent Cling Hill follow the casket bearing President Kennedy up the stairs of the U.S. Capitol for the lying in state at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 24. (Abbie Rowe/National Park Service/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President Kennedy’s body is placed in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Jacqueline Kennedy and daughter, Caroline, kneel at the casket of President Kennedy, as it lies in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 24. (Abbie Rowe/National Park Service/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Kennedy family members leave a memorial ceremony for President John F. Kennedy at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 24. Family members include Robert F. Kennedy, Patricia Lawford, Caroline Kennedy, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, Jr. (Abbie Rowe/National Parks Service/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Two unidentified Dallas police officers flank Lee Harvey Oswald, after his arrest. Oswald is arraigned for the Tippit murder at 7:10 p.m. (CST) on Nov. 22. (Dallas Police Department/Dallas Municipal Archives/MCT)
- The caisson bearing the casket of President Kennedy enters the White House grounds after returning from the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 25. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- The funeral caisson carrying President Kennedy’s casket enters the White House driveway on Nov. 25. (Robert Knudsen/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- The procession to St. Matthews Cathedral for the funeral of President John F. Kennedy leaves the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 25, 1963. First Row, L-R: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Senator Edward M. Kennedy; Second Row: James Auchincloss, R. Sargent Shriver and Steven Smith; Third Row: Mrs. Lady Bird Johnson, President Johnson and Luci Baines Johnson. (Abbie Rowe/National Park Service/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- The body of the late President Kennedy is carried from St. Matthews Cathedral in Washington, D.C., following the funeral Mass on Nov. 25. (SP4 David S. Schwartz/US Army Signal Corps/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Pallbearers carry the casket of President Kennedy to the grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 25. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy escorts Jacqueline Kennedy past the Honor Guard at the grave of President Kennedy, during the burial ceremony for the president at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 25. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy follows behind. (Abbie Rowe/National Parks Service/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Pallbearers hold the U.S. flag during the burial service for President Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 25. Dignitaries include French President Charles de Gaulle, President of West Germany Ludwig Erhard, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Queen Frederica of Greece and King Baudoin of Belgium. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Jacqueline Kennedy lights a temporary eternal flame at her husband’s gravesite during the funeral. The permanent John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame at Arlington National Cemetery is installed and opens in March 1967. (Chuck Kennedy/MCT)
- A 10-mile drive through Dallas and a speech on national security at the Trade Mart awaited President John F. Kennedy, as he, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Gov. John Connally and Nellie Connally, departed Love Field on Nov. 22, 1963. Less than a hour later, three gunshots would shatter the president’s plans, and plunge the nation into profound grief. Take a trip back to that fateful day, 50 years ago. (Tom Dillard/Dallas Morning News/MCT)
- A worker at the Book Depository, Lee Harvey Oswald, 24, disappears from the building immediately after the shooting, and boards a bus. When the bus gets caught in traffic, he exits, and begins to walk. Oswald soon emerges as a suspect. This photograph of Oswald holding a rifle in the backyard at 214 Neeley Street in Dallas, was among the evidence gathered by the police following the assassination. (Dallas Police Department via Dallas Morning News/MCT)
- President Kennedy stands behind the lectern at the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, Texas. Nellie Connally, Texas Gov. John Connally, Lady Bird Johnson, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy applaud to the president’s left. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President Kennedy attends the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, Texas, before taking a short flight to Dallas. Seated at the head table are (L-R) Lady Bird Johnson, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and the president. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy exit the Hotel Texas after the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Fort Worth, Texas. They soon depart for the short trip to Dallas. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy descend the stairs from Air Force One at Love Field in Dallas, Texas. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President Kennedy’s motorcade travels through downtown Dallas. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- At 12:30 p.m. (CDT), three shots ring out as the president’s motorcade passes through Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Frightened onlookers cover their children on the grass in the Plaza, as cameramen record their actions. President Kennedy is struck by two shots, and Gov. Connally wounded. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum//MCT)
- As spectators lie on the ground in Dealey Plaza and cameramen roll their cameras, a motorcycle police officer drives by immediately after the shooting of the president. (Tom Dillard/Dallas Morning News/MCT)
- The Texas School Book Depository building, which overlooks Dealey Plaza, quickly becomes the focus of law enforcement, as the police begin the manhunt for President Kennedy’s assassin. (Dallas Police Department/Dallas Municipal Archives/MCT)
- Men peer out the fifth floor window of the Depository building shortly after the assassination the president. But it is the floor above where an eyewitness reported seeing a man with a gun at the window, before the shots were fired. (Tom Dillard/Dallas Morning News/MCT)
- Dallas police discover a sniper’s nest constructed from book boxes around a sixth-floor floor window in the Texas School Book Depository. (Dallas Police Department/Dallas Municipal Archives/MCT)
- President John F. Kennedy reaches out to the crowd gathered at the Hotel Texas Parking Lot Rally in Fort Worth, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963. The President, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy stared the day by attending a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the hotel, before heading to Dallas. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- President Kennedy is pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas at 1:00 p.m. News of the president’s death breaks 37 minutes later. The 35th President of the United States was 46 years old. (Office of the Naval Aide to the President/National Archives/MCT)
- At 1:40 p.m., Oswald encounters and shoots Dallas patrolman J.D. Tippit on a Dallas residential street. Tippit had identified Oswald as the suspect the police were looking for in connect with the Kennedy shooting. (Dallas Police Department/Dallas Municipal Archives/MCT)
- At 1:22 p.m., Dallas police find a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle in a staircase leading to the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT)
- With a police manhunt underway, Oswald takes refuge in the Texas Theater in Dallas. Shortly before 2:00 p.m. (CDT), police arrest Oswald in the back of the movie house. An unknown police officer inside the theater points to the seat where Oswald sat. (Dallas Police Department/Dallas Municipal Archives/MCT)
- President Kennedy’s casket is loaded on to Air Force One at Love Field in Dallas, Texas, for flight to Washington, D.C. Onlookers include Lawrence “Larry” O’Brien, Jacqueline Kennedy and Dave Powers. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Jacqueline Kennedy boards Air Force One, after President Kennedy’s casket had been loaded aboard for the flight from Dallas, Texas, to Washington, D.C. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
- Judge Sarah T. Hughes administers the Presidential Oath of Office to Lyndon Baines Johnson at 2:39 p.m. (CST) aboard Air Force One at Love Field, Dallas Texas, on Nov. 22. Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Kennedy, Jack Valenti, Rep. Albert Thomas, Rep. Jack Brooks, Associate Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff (holding microphone) and others witness the oath. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum/MCT)
- Judge Sarah T. Hughes administers the Presidential Oath of Office to Lyndon Baines Johnson at 2:39 p.m. (CST) aboard Air Force One at Love Field, Dallas Texas, on Nov. 22. Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Kennedy, Jack Valenti, Rep. Albert Thomas, Rep. Jack Brooks, Associate Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff (holding microphone) and others witness the oath. (Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum/MCT)
- The casket bearing President Kennedy is taken from Air Force One is placed in a waiting ambulance for transport from Andrews Air Force base, Md., to the Bethesda Naval Hospital for an autopsy. (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/MCT)
The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it passed the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire reverberated in the Plaza.
Bullets struck the president’s neck and head.
Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a recently hired employee at the Texas School Book Depository. He was being held for the assassination of President Kennedy. Before Oswald could stand trial, he was fatally shot by a local nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
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