As his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, gunfire rang out from the Texas School Book Depository. Kennedy, struck in the head and neck, was rushed to Parkland Hospital and pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested within hours. The assassination shocked the world, reshaped American politics, and spawned decades of conspiracy theories that persist to this day.
Jacqueline Kennedy wore a pink Chanel suit that morning, chosen because the president had asked her to wear something bright so Texans could see her clearly. She never washed the blood from it afterward, later saying, 'Let them see what they've done.' The suit remains sealed in a National Archives vault, not to be displayed until at least 2103.
Governor John Connally, riding in the same limousine, was also wounded but survived. Abraham Zapruder, a dressmaker who happened to bring his home-movie camera to watch the motorcade, captured the entire event on 8mm film, producing 26.6 seconds of footage that would become the most scrutinized home movie in history.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One just under two hours later, using a Catholic missal mistaken for a Bible, with a still-bloodstained Jacqueline Kennedy standing beside him. Oswald himself was shot dead two days later by Jack Ruby, live on national television, ensuring the full truth of the plot would never be settled to universal satisfaction.
Key people: John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Lyndon B. Johnson