48th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Today marks the 48th anniversary of one of the most tragic events to take place in the United States -- the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States. The president was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, in a Presidential motorcade. A ten-month investigation by the Warren Commission, 1963–1964, concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald before he could stand trial. Conspiracy theories have abounded in the ensuing years.

I was a freshman in high school that fall of 1963. I had come home from school for lunch when the first bulletins about the shooting came on TV. I knew that the president had been shot at but did not know he had died until I got back to school. I remember that weekend just as vividly as if it happened just yesterday. Friday, November 22 in Central Illinois was a cold, rainy, and gloomy day. School let out early and we went to church for a prayer service that evening. We were glued to the TV set the whole weekend. And on Monday we had another church service in the morning before the Kennedy funeral began. It was a very sad time.