Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1963)

assassination of John F Kennedy Friday November 22nd 1963 John F Kennedy served as president during the height of the Cold War during his presidency he saw the increase of military spending on both nuclear and conventional forces and increased the number of US advisors in Vietnam from 400 to 16,000 the Bay of Pigs fiasco the failure of 1,400 Cuban exiles trained by the CIA to invade their own country began at the start of his presidency then there was the Cuban Missile Crisis resulting in the USSR and the USA is signing the test ban treaty forbidding nuclear testing in the atmosphere it also established the hotline a direct telephone contact between the White House and the Kremlin during Kennedy's time in office the Berlin wall was built by the Soviets in order to stop refugees from fleeing from East Germany to West Germany in Berlin he delivered a speech challenging Soviet oppression and gave hope to the people of the city but in the winter of 1963 the presidency of John F Kennedy would be tragically cut short on November 21st 1963 President John F Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline departed on Air Force One for a two-day five-city tour of Texas he was to announce his candidacy for the 1964 presidential elections there because Texas was vital for his re-election Texans needed to be convinced as the state was largely not in favor of Kennedy's civil rights policies and handling of foreign policies like the Bay of Pigs fiasco the feuding among Democratic Party leaders there also hindered his chances of reelection and they needed to be brought together the next morning on November 22nd Kennedy made a speech to a large crowd outside the hotel that he had stayed in at Fort Worth and then made another speech inside at a breakfast hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce he would say in the last speech he would ever make this is a very dangerous and uncertain world we would like to live as we once lived but history will not permit it the presidential party left the Texas hotel and went by motorcade to Carswell Air Force Base boarding Air Force One landing at Dallas Love Field Airport a short time later President Kennedy and his wife shook hands with an enthusiastic crowd and sat in the back seats of their limousine as part of the motorcade Democratic Texas Governor John Connally and his wife were seated in the seats in front of them in front of these seats were two Secret Service agents the president's next stop was the Dallas Trade Mart approximately ten miles away where Kennedy was scheduled to deliver another speech it's estimated that about 200,000 people lined the route to the Trade Mart the limousine the president was traveling in was an open-top 1961 Lincoln Continental four-door convertible limousine that was called the SS 100 X by the Secret Service the motorcade moved through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas Nellie Connolly the first lady of Texas turned around to the president who was sitting behind her and commented mr. president you can't say Dallas doesn't love you which President Kennedy acknowledged by saying no you certainly can't those were the last words ever spoken by John F Kennedy at 12:30 p.m. the motorcade was passing the grassy knoll to the north of Elm Street and moving towards the Texas School Book Depository then gunshots were heard a bullet hit President Kennedy's neck and hit governor Connally shoulder and wrist a second shot then hit President Kennedy in the head covering the limousines rear interior with fragments of skull blood and brain the impact was so severe that blood and fragments even landed on the Secret Service car that was following behind the limousine sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital within minutes but it was already too late and doctors efforts were in vain Kennedy was declared dead at 1:00 p.m. Connally would recover from his wounds the country and the world was in shock President Kennedy's body was taken from Parkland Hospital to Love Field and loaded onto Air Force One at 2:38 p.m. sheltered on board Air Force One in case of further assassination attempts lyndon b johnson took the oath of office with jacqueline kennedy by his side still wearing her blood-spattered clothes the oath was administered by US District Court Judge Sarah Hughes less than an hour earlier a person had been arrested by the police witnesses had reported hearing and seeing shots from different directions but several accounts mentioned the southeast corner window on the sixth floor of the Texas schoolbook depository building only two employees from the building were missing one who had walked outside and wasn't allowed back into the building by police at the time of the shooting and another Lee Harvey Oswald would only been working there for a month he had been seen and described by the witnesses who saw him in the sixth floor window so a description was sent out by the police as he moved down the floors he was encountered by Dallas Police Officer Marion L Baker who had his gun drawn he was allowed to pass however because Oswald's supervisor identified him as an employee Oswald had slipped out of the book taury after the shooting and walked several blocks caught a city bus and then hailed a taxi and took him straight to his boardinghouse there he picked up a pistol and a coat and began to walk aimlessly Oswalt had already left the scene on a bus to his boarding house by 12:40 p.m. but the police did discover a rifle underneath some boxes and its shells by the window on the 6th floor as witnesses had described the police identified it as a 7.65 Mouser but later the FBI announced that the police were mistaken and the rifle was an Italian Carcano m91 38 bolt-action rifle the second-hand Italian made Carcano rifle had been purchased by Oswalt earlier in the year under the alias a Hydell the Carcano was a notoriously inaccurate weapon and for many it's hard to believe that with such a weapon oswald despite his former military training could hit a moving target like the president twice with such precision at a range of approximately 250 feet shortly afterwards a dallas policeman by the name of JD Tippit was patrolling his usual area and saw a man who fitted the Oswald description on the corner of 10th Street and Patton Avenue after a brief exchange of words Oswald shot tip at four times with a 38 revolver killing him in front of witnesses Oswald ran to the nearby commercial street of Jefferson Boulevard a man named Johnny Calvin brewer noticed his suspicious behavior and followed Oswald for several blocks to the Texas theater Oswald ducked there without buying a ticket Brewer hailed the police officer Nick McDonald who entered the theater accompanied by another officer both officers apprehended Oswald on the stage of the Texas theater six blocks away from the scene of the crime 1:50 p.m. what Oswald was arrested he was carrying a forged identity card bearing the name Alec J Hydell the alias he used to buy the rifle however Texas law imposed no control over the purchase of weapons there was no reason to buy it under an assumed name so why did as Walt buy the rifle and a handgun by mail-order under his assumed name curiously army intelligence was known to have a file on AJ Hidell the contents of which were destroyed before it could be acquired by investigators on Sunday morning November 24th after being held for two nights Oswald was being transferred from city jail to the County Jail the event was being broadcast live on TV from millions of Americans to see suddenly out of nowhere a man shot a pistol point-blank at Oswald who died two hours later at Parkland Memorial Hospital the man who fired the pistol was Jack Ruby a local nightclub owner he said that he killed Oswald to spare mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial the state funeral for President Kennedy was held on November 25th 1963 with representatives from more than 100 countries and millions of viewers watching it on television on November 29th 1963 president lyndon b johnson created the President's Commission on the assassination of President John F Kennedy also known as the Warren Commission after its chairman Earl Warren Chief Justice of the United States it's 888 page final report was presented to Johnson on September 24th 1964 the Warren report concluded that Oswald who had become a skilled marksman as a Marine had fired three shots one that entered Kennedy's neck and exited through his throat before hitting Connally one that hit Kennedy in the back of the head the fatal shot and one that missed the president ricocheted off a piece of sidewalk which injured James take many disagreed with these findings and argued instead that there had been a second shooter on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza that the motorcade had been approaching and there were witnesses who thought they had heard shots coming from the direction of a rim Road beyond the Knoll the report however concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby had acted alone although the findings of the Warren Commission continued to be controversial [Music] you

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Keywords: simple history, education, John F. Kennedy, jfk, Assassination, texas, dallas, President, usa, american, history, CIA, Berlin Wall, Fort Worth, Air Force One, motorcade, limousine, John Connally, Love Field, agent, secret service, Jackie Kennedy, Dealey Plaza, SS-100-X, Nellie Connally, Marrion L. Baker, police, FBI, carcano, rifle, sniper, Book Depository, A. Hidell, J.D. Tippit, Lee harvey, oswald, Jacqueline, Jack Ruby, Warren commision, grassy knoll

Id: kFeiM_Mxsv8

Length: 10min 8sec (608 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 06 2019