Staying Fit
It has been 50 years since Nov. 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald as the president was riding in an open-topped car, with the first lady at his side, during a presidential motorcade in Dallas.
Here, 50 interesting facts about that day, what preceded it and what came after.
1. On Nov. 11, 1963, President Kennedy laid a Veterans Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
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2. He would be buried at the cemetery exactly two weeks later.
3. Jacqueline Kennedy rarely traveled with her husband on political trips but decided to fly with him to Texas on Nov. 21.
4. On Nov. 22, the couple attended a breakfast in Fort Worth.
5. The presidential open-top limousine had been flown in from D.C.
6. A 14-year-old boy reported watching JFK's face go blank around 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 22.
7. The boy also said he heard Jacqueline Kennedy shout, "God, oh God, no."
8. Texas Governor John Connally Jr. received multiple gunshot wounds.
9. A priest administered last rites to the first Roman Catholic U.S. president.
10. This was the fourth presidential assassination in a nation that was less than 200 years old.
11. It was the first since the Secret Service began protecting presidents.
12. The Service scuffled with Dallas police for control of the president's casket.
13. Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office aboard Air Force One.
14. He became president 99 minutes after Kennedy's death.
15. Kennedy's body was also aboard for the return flight to Washington.
16. Judge Sarah Hughes wept as she administered the oath of office.
17. Jackie Kennedy refused to take off her pink Chanel suit, stained with her husband's blood. She told Lady Bird Johnson, "I want them to see what they have done to Jack."
18. Jackie did, however, remove her wedding ring and put it on her husband's finger to be buried with him.
19. Later, she had an aide retrieve it.
20. Jackie's suit has never been cleaned and lies in the National Archives.
21. It will not be seen in public until at least 2103, according to Kennedy family wishes.
22. Attorney General and presidential brother Robert F. Kennedy met Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base upon its return.
23. The Texas School Book Depository's sixth floor, where assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself for the shooting, is today a museum dedicated to JFK's assassination.
24. Oswald was a self-described Marxist.
25. He had tried to defect to Russia in 1959.
