| Time (CST) | Event |
|---|
| 11/21 05:45 | Robert Stroud, convicted murderer and self-educated ornithologist who gained fame as the "Birdman of Alcatraz", has died in his sleep at a federal penitentiary in Springfield, Missouri. He was 73. |
| 11/21 06:00 | In Japan, Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda's pro-American Conservative Party coasts to an easy victory over left-wing opposition in parliamentary elections. The turnout was the lowest since the end of World War II. |
| 11/21 08:00 | On the White House lawn, Secret Service agent Muggsy O'Leary is packing up the First Lady's clothes for the Texas trip – including the pink suit she plans to wear tomorrow – and putting them in the presidential helicopter. |
| 11/21 08:35 | First order of business in the British House of Commons this afternoon: Commander Kerans asks Henry Brooke, Secretary of State for the Home Department, to introduce legislation to ban witchcraft. Brooke's response: "Witchcraft ceased to be a criminal offence in 1735." |
| 11/21 09:00 | A grand jury in Dallas County, Ala., is informed that Attorney General Kennedy will not cooperate with its investigation of claims that activist Martin Luther King got a free ride in a Justice Department car. Yesterday afternoon, the notice was sent to Dallas, Texas by mistake. |
| 11/21 09:18 | The floor of the British House of Commons erupts into pandemonium, as Opposition leader Harold Wilson accuses Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home and the Tories of giving high-ranking party members "a peerage on a plate" and starts a "slogging match" between the benches. |
| 11/21 09:25 | President Kennedy holds his last Oval Office meeting before leaving for Texas. Seated across from him are Charles Darlington and Thomas Estes, U.S. ambassadors to Gabon and Upper Volta, respectively. |
| 11/21 09:42 | First Lady Jackie Kennedy is preparing to leave the White House when she gets a weather update: contrary to previous forecasts, tomorrow afternoon will be unseasonably hot in Dallas. But it's too late to dress appropriately – her woolen pink suit is already packed up. |
| 11/21 09:45 | President Kennedy is discussing with his aides whether government employees and troops should get a half-day on Christmas Eve – Kennedy thinks they get too many holidays already – when he interrupts himself: it's time to leave for Texas. |
| 11/21 10:00 | The presidential helicopter lands at Andrews Air Force Base. When John Jr. realizes his parents are leaving him, he begins to cry. The President kisses his two-year-old son and leaves him in the care of Secret Service agent Bob Foster: "Take care of John for me, will you?" |
| 11/21 10:05 | Air Force One takes off from Andrews Air Force Base, headed to the President's first stop in San Antonio. Air Force Two, carrying Vice President Johnson, and a press plane with 42 reporters aboard will follow shortly. |
| 11/21 10:30 | Navy divers have recovered the wreckage of a U-2 spy plane which crashed into the Gulf of Mexico yesterday morning after a mission over Cuba. The pilot, 33-year-old Captain Joe G. Hyde Jr., was not found in the cockpit, providing a faint hope that he might still be alive. |
| 11/21 10:35 | The Dallas Times Herald has put out the first edition of today's afternoon paper, with a map of tomorrow's motorcade route. At the Texas School Book Depository downtown, a clerk excitedly shows the map to his coworkers – the President will pass right in front of their building. |
| 11/21 11:00 | Soviet officials admitted today that Russian fighter jets shot down an Iranian civilian plane yesterday, killing two surveyors. The news comes as Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev is on a state visit in Tehran, where he addressed the Iranian parliament. |
| 11/21 12:00 | After three years of litigation, the National Football League wins its case against the American Football League, which accused the NFL of holding an illegal monopoly on professional football. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has just decided the matter in the NFL's favor. |
| 11/21 12:30 | A federal grand jury in Birmingham, Alabama, will investigate the allegations that a car owned by the Justice Department was used to give integration activist Martin Luther King, Jr., free transportation to nearby Selma. The Department denies the claims. |
| 11/21 13:00 | The San Antonio City Transit System has begun a special bus service, ferrying passengers from downtown out to Brooks Air Force Base to watch the President's speech. |
| 11/21 13:01 | Vice President Lyndon Johnson, already at San Antonio International Airport for the President's arrival, is getting a quick haircut while he waits. |
| 11/21 13:02 | Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy says he won't resign his post to manage his brother's presidential re-election campaign next year, as rumored: "Of course, something could come up between now and then, but as of now I definitely plan to stay here through the election." |
| 11/21 13:30 | Air Force One has landed at San Antonio International Airport. President Kennedy's two-day trip through all the major cities of Texas has officially begun. |
| 11/21 13:35 | Texas senator Ralph Yarborough greets the presidential party. But he's dismayed to learn that, at the last minute, he's been scheduled to sit with the Vice President in the motorcade rather than with Kennedy. Yarborough goes rogue, following Congressman Henry Gonzalez instead. |
| 11/21 13:37 | President Kennedy is greeted by protesters from the N.A.A.C.P., with signs pointing out that San Antonio is a segregated city. Kennedy raises an eyebrow and leans over to Texas governor John Connally, but their conversation can't be heard over the noise of a police helicopter. |
| 11/21 13:40 | The President and First Lady are now boarding the presidential limousine for what will be the first of several motorcades, driving through downtown San Antonio on their way to Brooks Air Force Base for a speech. |
| 11/21 13:41 | An earthquake rattles windows and dishes in Monterey, California, but causes no serious damage. |
| 11/21 14:00 | The streets of downtown San Antonio are lined with thousands of well-wishers as the presidential motorcade passes through. |
| 11/21 14:25 | A wild motorcar speeds a mile down the Cog Railway at Colorado's famed Pikes Peak, jumping the tracks and throwing two riders to their deaths. Four other passengers jumped to safety before the car gained speed. |
| 11/21 14:30 | The Senate passes an increase of the nation's debt limit from $309 billion to $315 billion, over the objections of a bipartisan group of senators who protest that President Kennedy has no realistic plan to cut the budget deficit. The bill now awaits Kennedy's signature. |
| 11/21 14:40 | President Kennedy speaks at the dedication ceremony of the new School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, bolstering his administration's ambitious space policy which aims to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. |
| 11/21 15:00 | San Antonio columnist Paul Thompson: "Last time JFK appeared here was when he was running against Dick Nixon. In those days, they called him 'boyish' looking. Things sure can change in four years. Now the President is pushing 47 – and looks every living, squirming hour of it..." |
| 11/21 15:05 | Finishing his speech, President Kennedy is invited inside the new School of Aerospace Medicine for a brief, unplanned visit. He is shown an oxygen chamber where four young men are experiencing a simulation of the thin air that would be found at an altitude of almost 30,000 feet. |
| 11/21 15:15 | Five members of President Kennedy's Cabinet have taken off from California for a diplomatic mission to Tokyo. They will stop over tonight in Hawaii before leaving for Japan in the morning. |
| 11/21 15:25 | The presidential party arrives at San Antonio's Kelly Air Force Base, where Air Force One and the other two VIP planes were moved while Kennedy was speaking. |
| 11/21 15:30 | The chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, George H. W. Bush, urges Houstonians to greet President Kennedy warmly and discourages any demonstrations against him. "There may be some nuts around who might do something," Bush says, "but they won't be Republicans." |
| 11/21 15:40 | President Kennedy can see that the rift separating Senator Yarborough from Governor Connally and Vice President Johnson runs deep. He asks Congressman Albert Thomas to "get them sweetened up" on the flight to Houston, where all will be attending an appreciation dinner for Thomas. |
| 11/21 15:48 | The President and the First Lady board Air Force One, already exhausted from the first few hours of their trip and the crowds at every stop. But they have a long 30 hours ahead of them, so both grab a Coca-Cola on the way to the plane's bedroom and try to restore their energy. |
| 11/21 15:52 | Air Force One takes off from Kelly Field, starting the brief jet-powered journey to the next Presidential stop in Houston. |
| 11/21 16:00 | Former vice president Richard Nixon, who narrowly lost the last election to John F. Kennedy, predicts that Kennedy will drop Lyndon Johnson, a "political liability", as his running mate next year. Nixon, now a lawyer for Pepsi, is in Dallas today for a soda bottlers' convention. |
| 11/21 16:15 | Fort Worth police this afternoon spotted the barrel of a rifle pointed out an open window toward the Hotel Texas, where Kennedy will arrive in a few hours. The disturbance was found to be two young boys using the rifle's scope as binoculars to watch the preparations outside. |
| 11/21 16:37 | In a practical repeat of the crowd that greeted the presidential party in San Antonio, Air Force One lands at Houston International Airport in front of a raucous and excited crowd. |
| 11/21 16:40 | Wesley Frazier is about to leave the Texas School Book Depository when his coworker Lee Oswald asks for a ride. Lee's wife and kids live out in the suburbs, but he normally only visits on the weekends. He tells Wesley that he needs to pick up some curtain rods for his apartment. |
| 11/21 16:50 | A Secret Service agent admonishes Senator Yarborough: "You were supposed to be with the Vice President in San Antonio, Senator, and you're supposed to be there here, too." Yarborough is unmoved by Kennedy's efforts to unite Texas Democrats and insists on riding in another car. |
| 11/21 17:00 | Soviet diplomat Boris Voronin, undressed and barefoot, was taken by Congolese officials this evening and shoved onto a plane bound for Brussels. Voronin was arrested two days ago, accused of helping to plot a coup against the beleaguered Congolese government in Leopoldville. |
| 11/21 17:20 | The presidential motorcade has arrived at the Rice Hotel in downtown Houston. The President and First Lady are the first to stay in the hotel's new International Suite, although they won't be spending the night and are only using it to rest briefly before the dinner. |
| 11/21 17:30 | Marina Oswald is surprised to see her husband Lee this evening. Normally, he spends the week in a boarding house near his job at the Book Depository and only comes to visit her and their daughters over the weekend. "I got lonesome for my girls", Lee explains. |
| 11/21 18:00 | On the eve of Kennedy's visit to Dallas, thousands of leaflets have been scattered throughout the city accusing the President of treason. Police chief Jesse Curry says that if caught, the pamphleteers will be prosecuted for littering. |
| 11/21 18:30 | On a dairy ranch outside Napa, California, officers carefully remove the skeletal remains of a young girl from the pasture where they were found this morning. The body is thought to belong to five-year-old Doreen Heskett, who disappeared in March. |
| 11/21 18:50 | A freight train passing through Skull Valley, Arizona, partially derailed, injuring six crewmen and two hoboes, and exploding two tank cars of gasoline. None of the injuries were serious. |
| 11/21 19:00 | Workers in Australia this morning are lifting into position the first pre-cast concrete segments that will make up the roof of a striking new modernist structure: the Sydney Opera House. |
| 11/21 19:35 | The plane carrying several top Kennedy administration officials, including five cabinet secretaries, arrives in Honolulu. Joining Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who was in Hawaii for a summit on South Viet Nam, the group will fly to Tokyo tomorrow to meet with Japanese officials. |
| 11/21 20:00 | Police recovered $110,000 worth of stolen jewelry and other valuables today, while raiding the New York apartment of several men suspected of a series of hotel burglaries. |
| 11/21 20:25 | Unable to persuade Senator Yarborough to come around, Kennedy pulls the Vice President into his suite to try to convince him and Governor Connally to treat Yarborough more fairly. As he comes out of the brief meeting, Secret Service agents think Johnson looks furious. |
| 11/21 20:52 | In the Rice Hotel ballroom, Jackie Kennedy gives a brief speech in Spanish to a convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens. |
| 11/21 21:00 | The American Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages convention closes its four days of proceedings in Dallas with a special charity rodeo in the Livestock Coliseum at Texas State Fair Park. 200 local orphans will get the opportunity to participate. |
| 11/21 21:01 | Ruth Paine steps into her garage and finds that somebody has left the light on. She figures it must be Lee Oswald, her part-time tenant. Just a moment ago, he ran into his bedroom and shut the door behind him. |
| 11/21 21:30 | President Kennedy delivers a brief speech at the Albert Thomas appreciation dinner at the Houston Coliseum. |
| 11/21 22:00 | Pierre Salinger, Kennedy's press secretary, is enjoying a rare opportunity in Hawaii to take some time off from his demanding job representing the president to the world's news media. "This is my vacation," he says. |
| 11/21 22:12 | Air Force One takes off from the Houston airport for its final flight of the day, bringing the presidential party to Fort Worth. |
| 11/21 22:30 | Richard Nixon and Joan Crawford, both in Dallas for the soda bottlers' convention as associates of Pepsi, enter the Empire Room of the Statler Hilton Hotel. Robert Clary, the comedian on stage, points Nixon out to the audience: "Either you like him or you don't." |
| 11/21 23:00 | Police in Trumann, Arkansas discover a scene of horror on the outskirts of town. Soybean farmer Sammy Penter interrupted his step-daughter's sixth birthday party with a rifle, killing her, his wife, his mother-in-law and sister-in-law before turning the gun on himself. |
| 11/21 23:07 | Air Force One touches down at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, 22 minutes behind schedule. This late-night arrival in North Texas will give President Kennedy time to ride in a motorcade through downtown Dallas tomorrow before heading to a fundraising dinner in Austin. |
| 11/21 23:10 | Marguerite Oswald of Fort Worth is driving home from an eight-hour nursing shift when she sees that her usual route is blocked by police preparing for the President's motorcade. Undeterred, she simply drives around them. |
| 11/21 23:20 | President Kennedy and his entourage leave Carswell Air Force Base for their last motorcade of the day. They are protected from the night's pouring rain by the convertible's removable roof, but it doesn't look like that will be needed tomorrow. |
| 11/21 23:30 | At Dallas' Carousel Club, owner Jack Ruby takes the stage to demonstrate a twisting exercise board he invented. "Even President Kennedy tells us to get more exercise," he says. When a heckler calls Kennedy a "bum", Ruby is angry: "Don't ever talk that way about the President!" |
| 11/21 23:35 | The presidential party arrives at the Hotel Texas in downtown Fort Worth. A crowd of thousands has formed to await the President's arrival, some of them flooding the lobby and many more standing outside in the rain. |
| 11/21 23:40 | The President and his entourage enter their three-room suite on the eighth floor of the Hotel Texas. For security, all the other rooms on this floor have been kept empty tonight, except that of Helen Ganss, an elderly widow who lives at the hotel. |
| 11/21 23:55 | Fort Worth police have been dispatched to investigate a man seen lying on the roof of a building across the street from the Hotel Texas, roughly level with the windows of the suite where President Kennedy is now getting ready for bed. |
| 11/22 00:10 | After a long day protecting the President from one crowd after another, most of the Secret Service agents on the Texas detail are now heading to the Fort Worth Press Club for a late-night meal and drinks, and so is acting press secretary Malcolm Kilduff. |
| 11/22 03:00 | The Fort Worth Press Club has stayed open three hours later than usual to serve drinks to President Kennedy's aides and Secret Service agents. Even as it closes now, many of them aren't done for the night and are heading to the nearby Cellar Coffee House. |
| 11/22 03:01 | Lying in bed together, neither Lee Oswald nor his wife Marina can sleep. Marina rests her foot on her husband's leg, but he immediately and roughly shakes her off. |
| 11/22 04:00 | Record shops across Britain are facing a deluge of teen-agers this morning, as the increasingly popular rock 'n' roll band The Beatles release their second LP. Over 500,000 copies were ordered in advance, by far the greatest demand for an album the country has ever seen. |
| 11/22 04:15 | Marathon labor negotiations are underway at the Hanford Atomic Works, which supplies the U.S. government with weapons-grade plutonium. Only now, past 2 a.m. in Washington State, does yesterday's session go into recess. |
| 11/22 05:00 | Father Oscar Huber, pastor of Dallas' Holy Trinity Church, wakes early in his rectory, excited to see President Kennedy come through town today. But even though the first Catholic president is passing just three blocks from the church, none of his fellow pastors are interested. |
| 11/22 05:05 | The last remaining Secret Service agents at the Cellar have had their fill and are now heading back to the hotel. They won't get much sleep – many of them are on the 8:00 a.m. shift and will be responsible for securing the President's ride through Dallas seven hours from now. |
| 11/22 06:00 | The Soviet Union accused the United States in a note published today of creating dangerous incidents on the Berlin autobahn with its military convoys, and demanded that they stop. |
| 11/22 06:40 | His alarm went off several minutes ago, but Lee Oswald is still lying in bed this morning. Finally, his wife Marina prods him to get up, and he starts to get ready for another day working for minimum wage at a book warehouse in downtown Dallas. |
| 11/22 07:00 | An American Legion post in Abilene, Tex., announces that a framed picture of President Kennedy will be put back up on the wall at tonight's meeting. It was removed last week after the Legionnaires heard a false rumor that a Kennedy spokesman called the Legion "a bunch of drunks". |
| 11/22 07:22 | Lee Oswald arrives on foot at the house of a co-worker, Wesley Frazier, who previously agreed to drive him to work this morning. He's carrying a long, thin, brown paper package, which he tells Frazier holds some curtain rods he's planning to redecorate his boarding room with. |
| 11/22 07:30 | A valet knocks on the door of President Kennedy's room at the Hotel Texas, waking him for what promises to be another jam-packed day of travel and events: breakfast in Fort Worth, lunch in Dallas, and dinner in Austin, before staying the night at Vice President Johnson's ranch. |
| 11/22 07:40 | John F. Kennedy is lacing up his back brace, which alleviates the chronic pain he's suffered for most of his life – a taxing condition that few people know about. The brace provides much-needed support, although it prevents him from moving quickly or leaning very far forward. |
| 11/22 07:45 | John Nance Garner, former vice president who once warned Lyndon Johnson the job wasn't "worth a bucket of warm piss", celebrates his 95th birthday today in Uvalde, Texas. CBS bureau chief Dan Rather is there to film the celebration, though he will fly back to Dallas by noon. |
| 11/22 07:56 | Wesley Frazier pulls into the closest parking lot to his workplace at the Texas School Book Depository. His passenger, Lee Oswald, runs ahead, clutching the package of curtain rods against his side. |
| 11/22 08:00 | From the Hotel Texas, Vice President Lyndon Johnson asks his aide George Reedy how the national newspapers are covering Kennedy's trip. He's dismayed to learn that all of them are talking about the humiliation of Senator Yarborough refusing to sit with him in the motorcade. |
| 11/22 08:05 | At the Games of the New Emerging Forces, a new Third World alternative to the Olympics being held in Jakarta, the United Arab Republic is awarded the gold medal in soccer after a tied match against North Korea ends with a coin toss to determine the winner. The crowd boos loudly. |
| 11/22 08:30 | The morning after the soda bottlers' convention, Pepsi executives gather in a Dallas boardroom to discuss their future plans, including a merger with Frito-Lay. But their high-profile lawyer Richard Nixon can't stay long: he's flying back to New York's Idlewild Airport today. |
| 11/22 08:35 | As he prepares for the day, President Kennedy sees that the local newspapers are covering Senator Yarborough's displeasure that he has to ride with the Vice President instead of Kennedy. Fed up, Kennedy tells his secretary to tell Yarborough, "it's ride with Lyndon or walk." |
| 11/22 08:50 | Kennedy steps out of the Hotel Texas for his first public appearance of the day, briefly speaking from the back of a flatbed truck in the hotel's parking lot. "There are no faint hearts in Fort Worth," he tells the adoring crowd, who've been waiting in the rain for three hours. |
| 11/22 09:00 | WBAP-TV has begun a live broadcast of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast, where President Kennedy will soon be speaking. Ed Herbert is providing the commentary. |
| 11/22 09:01 | Before the Senate Rules Committee this morning, Don B. Reynolds begins testifying against Bobby Baker, a close associate of Vice President Lyndon Johnson who is being investigated for corruption. Reynolds arranged a $200,000 life insurance policy for Johnson in 1957. |
| 11/22 09:02 | At the ongoing Catholic council in Rome, Vatican II, the Church fathers give their final approval to the Schema on Liturgy, allowing Masses and sacraments to be performed in languages other than Latin for the first time. The change passes by a vote of 2,158 to 19. |
| 11/22 09:05 | Jackie Kennedy wasn't planning on attending the Fort Worth breakfast, and her mind is already on preparing for the Dallas motorcade. But Secret Service agent Clint Hill urges her to go downstairs: "The President wants you down there, right now." |
| 11/22 09:06 | Waiting for the President to enter the room, WBAP reporter Ed Herbert mentions how the Secret Service is struggling to protect him from the crowds outside. With airtime to fill, he starts to describe the assassination of President McKinley 62 years ago. |
| 11/22 09:09 | As President Kennedy leaves the crowd outside, passing through the hotel's kitchen to greet an even larger assembly in the ballroom, Senator Yarborough confronts him again. As soon as he mentions the seating arrangement, Kennedy retorts, "For Christ's sake, cut it out, Ralph." |
| 11/22 09:10 | President Kennedy enters the ballroom of the Hotel Texas to a round of applause, although many in the crowd are disappointed to see that the First Lady isn't coming in with him. |
| 11/22 09:25 | To mark the release of their new LP, the Beatles make their first appearance on U.S. television, in a segment on the CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace. For those who missed it, the segment is set to be repeated on tonight's evening news. |
| 11/22 09:31 | Mrs. Kennedy enters the Grand Ballroom in an elegant pink suit, receiving a greater cheer from the audience than her husband had. The President begins his remarks on national defense, but not before remarking, "Nobody wonders what Lyndon and I wear." |
| 11/22 09:35 | A crowd is already gathering in Dealey Plaza, where the President will come by in three hours. At the Book Depository, Lee Oswald asks Junior Jarman why people are waiting on the front steps. Jarman explains that the President's motorcade will pass right in front of the building. |
| 11/22 10:00 | In York, Pennsylvania, demolition workers accidentally knock over an 80-foot brick tower, taking out power lines and blocking traffic on Duke Street. No one was injured in the collapse. |
| 11/22 10:05 | Phil Spector releases his newest album, "A Christmas Gift for You", featuring The Ronettes, The Crystals, and Darlene Love. The album and its lead single, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", are showing disappointing early sales for the popular producer. |
| 11/22 10:10 | Nightclub owner Jack Ruby is getting ready to go to the Dallas Morning News office to place ads for his clubs, when he sees an ad in today's paper criticizing the President. Furious, he calls the News and chews them out: "Where the hell do you get off taking an ad like that?" |
| 11/22 10:15 | Kennedy takes the time to call John Nance Garner, once vice president under FDR, who's celebrating his 95th birthday today at his home in Uvalde, Texas. "I hope you stay in there forever," Garner tells the president. |
| 11/22 10:18 | President Kennedy makes another brief phone call to Ruth Carter Johnson, thanking her for arranging to decorate the presidential suite at the Hotel Texas with fine art on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art. |
| 11/22 10:24 | Kennedy's aides point out a full-page ad in today's Dallas Morning News, harshly criticizing the president's foreign policy and accusing him of allowing Communism to prosper unchecked around the globe. He remarks, "Oh, we're heading into nut country today." |
| 11/22 10:25 | Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas, announces that the public will be allowed on post during President Kennedy's visit later today. Secret Service officials had been reluctant to open the secure base to the public, but apparently changed their view at the last minute. |
| 11/22 10:27 | Still thinking about the newspaper ad, Kennedy muses, "It would not be a very difficult job to shoot the president of the United States. All you'd have to do is get up in a high building with a high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight, and there's nothing anybody could do." |
| 11/22 10:30 | At Life magazine's offices in New York, a group of reporters are presenting their first findings in what they call "the story of Lyndon Johnson's money". With further investigation, they hope to explain how the Vice President amassed millions from real estate sales while Senator. |
| 11/22 10:50 | Abraham Zapruder, a dressmaker who works in downtown Dallas, meant to bring his movie camera to work with him so he could film the President's motorcade passing by, but he left it at home. His secretary convinces him to drive back home and get it. |
| 11/22 11:00 | William Clay Ford, grandson of automobile mogul Henry Ford, has just acquired sole ownership of the Detroit Lions football team after a shareholder meeting at Detroit's Statler-Hilton Hotel. |
| 11/22 11:01 | Richard Nixon is on an American Airlines flight home from Dallas. "For want of a few thousand votes here and there," says a man sitting next to him, "that might have been you heading into Dallas today." Nixon replies, "I try not to think about things like that." |
| 11/22 11:02 | German doctor Wilhelm Beiglböck has been found dead in a stairwell under mysterious circumstances. Beiglböck was convicted of crimes against humanity in 1947 for experiments he performed on inmates at Dachau, but spent less than a year in prison before he was released. |
| 11/22 11:10 | A statewide poll published by the Houston Chronicle today finds that Republican senator Barry Goldwater leads President Kennedy in a potential 1964 election match-up. 52 percent of Texas voters say they would choose Goldwater if the election were to be held today. |
| 11/22 11:23 | As he climbs the steps of Air Force One, the President is still clearly bothered by the newspaper ad attacking him for his foreign policy. "I'll be glad when this next stop is over," he says unprompted. "It's the only one that worries me." |
| 11/22 11:25 | Air Force One takes off for a brief jaunt, ferrying President Kennedy and his entourage from Fort Worth's Carswell Air Force Base to Love Field in Dallas. This was designed to be a more impressive entrance than simply driving between the twin cities. |
| 11/22 11:25 | Dallas television station KRLD begins its live coverage of President Kennedy's arrival in Dallas, with journalist Bob Walker reporting from Love Field awaiting the arrival of Air Force One. |
| 11/22 11:26 | Dallas Times Herald reporter Jim Lehrer asks the Secret Service agents whether the bullet-resistant bubble-top will be on the President's car, but they haven't decided yet. Agent Forrest Sorrels radios downtown, and is told that the weather is clear. The bubble-top comes off. |
| 11/22 11:30 | C.S. Lewis, theologian and author of "The Chronicles of Narnia", collapses at his home in Oxford, England. His brother Warnie rushes into the room moments before Lewis stops breathing. He has died at the age of 64. |
| 11/22 11:31 | Don Reynolds has begun telling the Senate Rules Committee that he was pressured into purchasing advertising time on KTBC-TV, the Austin, Tex., television station owned by Vice President Lyndon Johnson. Riveted, the senators cancel their lunch recess and let Reynolds keep talking. |
| 11/22 11:35 | Aboard Air Force One, President Kennedy successfully persuades Governor Connally to give Senator Yarborough a seat of honor at tonight's gala dinner in Austin. The widening rift between the two politicians appears patched, at least for now. |
| 11/22 11:38 | Air Force One touches down at Dallas's Love Field. The weather is rapidly warming, and what had been a rainy morning is giving way to a beautiful afternoon for Kennedy's motorcade tour through Dallas. |
| 11/22 11:42 | The President and Mrs. Kennedy emerge from Air Force One and begin shaking the hands of dignitaries and the hundreds of people assembled in the crowd. |
| 11/22 11:47 | Kennedy nearly disappears into the loving crowd, to the consternation of his Secret Service detail and the dozens of Dallas police assigned to protect him from any potential attack. |
| 11/22 11:49 | President Kennedy, the First Lady, and the other dignitaries are finally ushered into their cars and the motorcade starts to pull out, running nearly 20 minutes behind schedule. |
| 11/22 11:54 | Charlie Givens is getting ready to take his lunch break at the Book Depository. As he approaches the elevator to ride down from the sixth floor, he bumps into Lee Oswald, who tells him to go ahead – he says he's not going downstairs for lunch today. |
| 11/22 12:00 | The Volunteers of America kick off their annual holiday charity drive in New York's Times Square, with a flood of 76 bell-ringing Santa Clauses raising money to feed the city's homeless a Thanksgiving dinner next week. |
| 11/22 12:01 | Walt Disney is on a secret company trip to central Florida today, scouting potential locations for a new theme park that will far surpass Disneyland. Spotting a large stretch of empty swamp near Orlando from his private plane, Disney points down and announces, "That's it." |
| 11/22 12:03 | In Honolulu, the delegation of Kennedy's Cabinet members are taking off now for Tokyo. The plane is leaving about an hour and a half ahead of schedule to avoid the strong headwinds predicted to form over the Pacific. |
| 11/22 12:04 | The early editions of the nation's afternoon newspapers are beginning to go to print. Some of them print the text of President Kennedy's speech at the Trade Mart and describe it in the past tense, expecting that he'll deliver the speech well before anyone reads the paper. |
| 11/22 12:05 | A reporter at the Cambridge News in England receives an anonymous telephone call. The caller says that he should call the American embassy in London for some big news, and then hangs up. |
| 11/22 12:06 | As the motorcade travels down Lemmon Avenue, the President spots a group of children holding a sign that reads "Mr. President, Please Stop and Shake Our Hands". Although he's already running late, he asks the driver to pull over so he can fulfill their request. |
| 11/22 12:07 | A young couple is watching President Kennedy shake hands with children along the side of his motorcade. Fearing the worst in this conservative city, Mrs. Gaudet turns to her husband and says, "President Kennedy ought to be awarded the Purple Heart just for coming to Dallas." |
| 11/22 12:08 | A telephone operator in Oxnard, California, gets a call from a woman who begins whispering rapidly. "The justice, the Supreme Court, there's going to be fire in all the windows, the Government is going up in flames", she intones. "The President is going to die at 10:30." |
| 11/22 12:09 | Protestors along the motorcade are few and far between, but they're hard not to notice. Along Lemmon Avenue, the motorcade passes a sign that reads "MR. PRESIDENT, BECAUSE OF YOUR SOCIALIST TENDENCIES AND BECAUSE OF YOUR SURRENDER TO COMMUNISM, I HOLD YOU IN COMPLETE CONTEMPT." |
| 11/22 12:15 | Turning onto Turtle Creek Boulevard, Kennedy sees a group of parochial schoolchildren with a nun and asks to stop for an impromptu meet-and-greet again. |
| 11/22 12:16 | Ted Dealey, publisher of the Dallas Morning News, disdains President Kennedy enough that he's not joining the city's other prominent businessmen at the Trade Mart. Instead, he's watching the motorcade from his penthouse apartment. From 19 stories up, all he can see is a pink hat. |
| 11/22 12:19 | A man waiting in Dealey Plaza for the President's motorcade has suffered an epileptic seizure. An ambulance is dispatched to rush him to Parkland Hospital. |
| 11/22 12:20 | Just outside of downtown Dallas, police are struggling to maintain order – not to protect the President from any threat, but to keep well-wishers from overwhelming the barricades and spilling out into the street as the motorcade approaches. |
| 11/22 12:21 | Waiting for the motorcade to come through Dealey Plaza, Arnold Rowland spots a man holding a rifle in a sixth-floor window of the Book Depository. He nudges his wife and says, "Hey, you want to see a Secret Service man?" |
| 11/22 12:28 | The ride through Dallas is nearly over now – a relief for Jackie Kennedy, who's been squinting in the bright afternoon sun for the past 40 minutes. Nellie Connally points out the shade of the underpass they'll drive through in a moment and tells her, "We're almost through." |
| 11/22 12:29 | The cars turn into Dealey Plaza, the courthouse square of central Dallas. As their tour of the city comes to a close, Nellie Connally turns back again and remarks, "Well, Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you." Kennedy replies, "No, you certainly can't." |
| 11/22 12:30 | BREAKING: A series of gunshots were heard in Dealey Plaza as President Kennedy's motorcade drove past. The president appears to have been seriously wounded. |
| 11/22 12:31 | Jacqueline Kennedy crawls onto the back of the car, then cradles her wounded husband, crying, "Jack, what have they done to you?" The motorcade speeds along its pre-planned route up the Stemmons Freeway, but it's headed for a new destination now: Parkland Hospital. |
| 11/22 12:31 | Marrion Baker, a Dallas police officer accompanying the motorcade, stops his motorcycle and runs into the Texas School Book Depository, which he thinks he heard shots coming from. Roy Truly, the manager, offers to lead him through the building in search of the culprit. |
| 11/22 12:32 | A few cars behind the President, reporter Merriman Smith grabs the car's state-of-the-art radio-telephone and dictates a bulletin to his bosses at United Press International. Jack Bell of the Associated Press is waiting impatiently to use it next. |
| 11/22 12:32 | Officer Baker, charging up the stairs of the Book Depository, pulls his gun on a man hurrying down the stairs. Roy Truly assures him that it's just one of his employees, Lee Oswald, and he and Baker leave him behind as they continue their search for the source of the shots. |
| 11/22 12:33 | NBC News reporter Robert MacNeil jumps out of a press bus in the back of the motorcade and runs for the nearest telephone to report what just happened. A man running out of the Texas School Book Depository points him to a phone inside. |
| 11/22 12:34 | The UPI newswire carries the first report, courtesy of Merriman Smith: "THREE SHOTS FIRED AT PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S MOTORCADE TODAY IN DOWNTOWN DALLAS". Smith asks the teletypist to read it back to him, while the AP's Jack Bell slaps him and shouts "Give me the goddamn phone!" |
| 11/22 12:34 | The President's car peels off the Stemmons Freeway at top speed and hurtles past the Trade Mart on its way to Parkland Hospital. The police and reporters awaiting Kennedy's arrival there are left confused in its wake. |
| 11/22 12:35 | Admiral George Burkley, Physician to the President, is waiting for his patient at the Trade Mart when he gets the news. As the man trusted with the President's private medical information and knowledge of the many medications he takes, he hurries to nearby Parkland Hospital. |
| 11/22 12:36 | The limousine carrying President Kennedy pulls up at Parkland's emergency entrance, but Jackie refuses to stop clutching him so he can be wheeled in. "I'm not going to let him go," she tells the Secret Service agents. "You know he's dead." |
| 11/22 12:36 | ABC Radio is the first nationwide broadcaster to carry the news of the shooting in Dallas, as Don Gardiner cuts into normal programming to read out the bulletin just sent over the UPI newswire. |
| 11/22 12:37 | Already struggling to remain conscious and trying to get out of his seat to help the President, Governor Connally collapses in pain. Only now does anyone other than himself and his wife Nellie realize that the Governor has also been severely wounded. |
| 11/22 12:37 | Colonel Willis Helmantoler, Air Force chief of public information in the Pacific, sees the report of Kennedy's shooting on a teletype machine and whispers, "Oh, no!" He grabs a phone and calls the plane full of Cabinet officials now on its way to Tokyo to deliver them the news. |
| 11/22 12:37 | Shielding his badly wounded body from the reporters, who are now getting out of their car and approaching the limousine, Secret Service agents pry President Kennedy from his wife's desperate grasp, pull him out of the car, and lift him onto a stretcher. |
| 11/22 12:38 | An orderly at Parkland Hospital records the admission of patient No. 24740, "Kennedy, John F." His "chief complaint" is "GSW", short for "gunshot wound". |
| 11/22 12:39 | Hearing a Secret Service agent say the President is dead, Merriman Smith commandeers a phone on a hospital desk and makes another report to the UPI newswire: "FLASH: KENNEDY SERIOUSLY WOUNDED – PERHAPS SERIOUSLY – PERHAPS FATALLY BY ASSASSINS BULLET". |
| 11/22 12:39 | Seven blocks east of Dealey Plaza, a man bangs on the door of a city bus stuck in traffic and the driver lets him in. Another passenger, Mary Bledsoe, recognizes him immediately: he's a former tenant of hers, Lee Oswald. |
| 11/22 12:39 | The AP newswire flashes a report from photographer Ike Altgren: "President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy. She cried, 'Oh, no!' The motorcade sped on." |
| 11/22 12:40 | CBS interrupts "As The World Turns" with the first television report of the shooting, a brief bulletin read by anchorman Walter Cronkite, before returning to the program. The cameras haven't had time to warm up, so viewers can only hear Cronkite's voice. |
| 11/22 12:40 | Dallas Morning News reporter Harry McCormick has just rushed over to Dealey Plaza from the Trade Mart. Looking for witnesses to the shooting, he finds a local dressmaker, Abraham Zapruder, who nearly sobs, "I got it all on film." |
| 11/22 12:41 | Almost every available doctor at Parkland Hospital is rushing into Trauma Room 1, where President Kennedy's heart is still faintly beating. He isn't breathing, though, and his skin's starting to turn blue, so their first priority is to get oxygen flowing through his blood again. |
| 11/22 12:43 | Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy is having a relaxing lunch at home when he gets a call from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover – already not a good sign. "The president's been shot," he says. "It's believed to be fatal." |
| 11/22 12:43 | A senior page runs onto the floor of the U.S. Senate, where Massachusetts' Ted Kennedy is presiding over a debate on federal libraries. "The most terrible thing has happened!", he shouts. "Your brother, the president! He's been shot!" |
| 11/22 12:43 | While doctors work feverishly on Kennedy and hope for a miracle, Jackie gets up from a folding chair in the hallway and demands to be let into the operating room. "I want to be in there when he dies," she insists. The President's personal physician lets her in as he arrives. |
| 11/22 12:43 | The bus that Lee Oswald is riding is making no progress, caught in the snarl of traffic that's engulfing downtown Dallas right now. So he gets off, asking the driver for a transfer as he leaves. |
| 11/22 12:44 | Howard Brennan, who spotted a man in a window of the Book Depository with a gun, provides Dallas police with a rough description, which is promptly broadcast to all officers in the city: "White male, approximately 30, slender build, height 5'10", weight 165 pounds." |
| 11/22 12:45 | With most of the city's police occupied, a Dallas dispatcher instructs two officers, J.D. Tippit and Ronald Nelson, to patrol the Oak Cliff neighborhood on the city's south side. But Nelson replies that he's already on his way downtown. Tippit will have to patrol the area alone. |
| 11/22 12:45 | On the south side of Dallas, the Texas Theater opens for the afternoon, showing a double feature of "War is Hell" and "Cry of Battle". But the employees there are already distracted from their duties by the breaking news of the shooting. |
| 11/22 12:46 | Cab driver William Whaley takes a passenger from the Greyhound station in downtown Dallas, who asks to be taken two miles south to 500 North Beckley Avenue. Whaley can't help but notice the man's ID bracelet from the Marines, neatly engraved with the word "Lee". |
| 11/22 12:47 | Liz Pozen, a friend of the Kennedy family, is driving their five-year-old daughter Caroline to her house for the girl's first sleepover. She turns on the radio and catches a snippet of news: "–shot in the head, and his wife Jackie–", before immediately turning it off. |
| 11/22 12:48 | Marina Oswald, hearing that shots were fired at the President from the Book Depository, immediately worries that her husband was responsible. But she checks the garage, where he keeps his rifle, and is relieved to see that the blanket he always wrapped it up in is still there. |
| 11/22 12:49 | Richard Nixon is taking a cab home from Idlewild Airport, but the cab driver is lost. Riding aimlessly through Queens, Nixon sees a woman run out of her house in tears, shouting that President Kennedy has just been shot in Dallas. |
| 11/22 12:50 | At Parkland, acting Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff is asked by reporters whether the President is dead. He replies, "I have no word now." |
| 11/22 12:50 | The Cabinet plane headed to Tokyo for an economic summit, now halfway between Hawaii and Wake Island, is turning around for the long flight back to Washington, half a world away. |
| 11/22 12:51 | Over the Dallas police radio, a dispatcher asks Chief Jesse Curry if President Kennedy will still be speaking at the Trade Mart today. Curry replies, "It's very doubtful." |
| 11/22 12:52 | Lee Oswald gets out of his cab ride about a block early – little does the driver realize he gave the wrong address and now has to backtrack four blocks to get to his boarding house. |
| 11/22 12:53 | Earle Cabell, the mayor of Dallas, is standing in the hallway outside Parkland's emergency rooms in a daze. Those nearby can hear him muttering to himself, "It didn't happen. It didn't happen!" |
| 11/22 12:55 | Switchboard operators across the country are struggling to keep up with the heaviest telephone call volume on record, as word of the shooting spreads and people tell their friends to turn on the TV. Here, in Binghamton, N.Y., the dial system has jammed. |
| 11/22 12:56 | On the floor of the Senate, Wayne Morse of Oregon says: "If there ever was an hour when all Americans should pray, this is the hour." Mike Mansfield of Montana motions for a recess, which is promptly adopted. |
| 11/22 12:57 | Caroline Kennedy doesn't know why her sleepover has just been canceled. Her driver, Secret Service agent Tom Wells, is suspicious of a car that seems to be following them as they head back to the White House. Through the streets of D.C., he starts making evasive maneuvers. |
| 11/22 12:58 | Dallas landlady Earlene Roberts has just heard from a friend that Kennedy was shot. As she tries to clear up the fuzzy picture on her TV, one of her tenants rushes into his room, a man she knows only as "O. H. Lee". She calls to him, "You're in a hurry," but he doesn't respond. |
| 11/22 12:58 | Working frantically on the President's body, Dr. Marion Jenkins feels for a pulse and finds none. He mentions this to Parkland's chief neurosurgeon, Dr. William Kemp Clark, who examines the back of Kennedy's head for the first time and realizes his injuries are unsurvivable. |
| 11/22 12:59 | With President Kennedy's heart no longer pumping blood, Dr. Malcolm Perry tries massaging the heart through his skin – a desperate last resort. But the EKG monitor still shows him flatlining, and Dr. Clark stops Perry: "It's too late, Mac." |
| 11/22 13:00 | Dr. Clark turns to Jackie Kennedy and softly says, "Your husband has sustained a fatal wound." Silently, she mouths back to him, "I know." Then the doctor turns back around and officially pronounces John Fitzgerald Kennedy dead. The time of death is recorded at exactly 1:00 p.m. |
| 11/22 13:01 | Father Oscar Huber, who saw President Kennedy ride by just an hour ago, bursts into the operating room at Parkland just in time to administer Kennedy the last rites. Huber is sure his soul will remain in his body long enough to receive this final sacrament. |
| 11/22 13:02 | In Stockton-on-Tees, England, the Beatles are preparing to take the stage at the Globe Theatre when word trickles in that the American president has been shot. There are whispers that tonight's two concerts might be cancelled, but the show is going on. |
| 11/22 13:03 | Presidential aide Ken O'Donnell approaches Secret Service agent Clint Hill, his eyes reddened. "We need a casket for the president," he says. Hill promptly asks the hospital staff for a phone and the number of the best funeral home in the city. |
| 11/22 13:04 | Vernon O'Neal, proprietor of a Dallas funeral home, picks up the phone. "I need a casket delivered to Parkland Hospital's emergency entrance," says the voice on the other end. "Right away. The best one you have. It's for the President." |
| 11/22 13:05 | Robert F. Kennedy gets another call from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who wants to let him know that the president is now is "very, very critical condition". But Bobby has just gotten a call from Dallas, and he replies, "It may interest you to know that my brother is dead." |
| 11/22 13:07 | Facing an unprecedented wave of panicked investors selling off their shares, the New York Stock Exchange suspends all trading for the rest of the day. The exchange was running 20 minutes behind in recording transactions. |
| 11/22 13:10 | At Parkland, Assistant Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff approaches Lyndon Johnson to ask for permission to announce Kennedy's death. He begins his request, "Mr. President...", the first time anyone's acknowledged Johnson that way, and the new President's head snaps up. |
| 11/22 13:11 | Lyndon Johnson asks Malcolm Kilduff to hold off on officially announcing Kennedy's death. "We don't know whether it's a Communist conspiracy or not," the new President says. "I'd better get out of here and back to the plane." |
| 11/22 13:11 | On the corner of 10th and Patton, Officer J.D. Tippit spots a man on the sidewalk who matches the vague description of the attempted assassin: a slender young white man, about 5'10". He pulls over for a brief conversation with the man, just to make sure he wasn't the shooter. |
| 11/22 13:12 | Growing suspicious of the man he just stopped on the street, Officer Tippit gets out of his car and approaches him. But he grabs a concealed pistol from under his jacket and shoots five rounds at Tippit. Then he's heard to say, "Poor dumb cop", before running away. |
| 11/22 13:12 | Two police officers rush into Parkland carrying a carton of blood for a transfusion, apparently for Governor Connally. |
| 11/22 13:13 | Father Huber and Father Thompson walk out of Parkland Hospital and are mobbed by a crowd of reporters desperately trying to get the latest word from the operating room. Without thinking, Huber gives them an unsanctioned update: "He's dead, all right." |
| 11/22 13:13 | The attendees at the Trade Mart have no idea why President Kennedy is so late in arriving to their luncheon. Now the president of the Dallas Citizens Council rises to explain: "Our President and Governor Connally in the motorcade have been shot." |
| 11/22 13:16 | As soon as he's sure the man who shot Officer Tippit is gone, local mechanic Domingo Benavides runs to the squad car, grabs Tippit's radio, and tries to report what he just saw. But he has no idea how to use the radio, and all the dispatchers can hear is a clicking noise. |
| 11/22 13:16 | In the frenzied control room at KRLD-TV in Dallas, bureau chief Dan Rather tells the radio desk he has three separate sources reporting that the President is dead. Without waiting for any further confirmation, CBS Radio promptly runs the story nationwide. |
| 11/22 13:17 | T. F. Bowley is on his way to pick up his wife from work when he sees a police officer lying, seemingly dead, in the street. He helps Domingo Benavides figure out how to work the police radio and promptly broadcasts a message: "There's been a shooting out here." |
| 11/22 13:18 | Speaker of the House John McCormack, sitting in the Capitol cafeteria, is told that Kennedy was just given the last rites and that Johnson may have also been shot. If both were to die, that would make the 71-year-old McCormack the new President. He nearly faints. |
| 11/22 13:19 | An ambulance pulls up at the scene of Officer Tippit's shooting, having been only a few blocks away when it was first reported over the police radio. There's little they can do for Tippit but to lift him into the back and rush him to Methodist Hospital. |
| 11/22 13:20 | Aldous Huxley, the British author best known for his book "Brave New World", is on his deathbed at his ranch in Llano, California. But he has one last request: he scrawls on a piece of paper, "LSD – Try it 100 mm". |
| 11/22 13:21 | Darrell Tomlinson, a building engineer at Parkland Hospital, notices an empty stretcher blocking a narrow hallway. When he wheels it out of the way, he hears the sharp clink of metal against metal, and finds a bullet lying against the rim of the stretcher. |
| 11/22 13:22 | Nine police officers are scouring every inch of the sixth floor of the Book Depository, but so far they haven't found any potential murder weapon. Then, shining a flashlight on the floor, Deputy Eugene Boone spots a rifle wedged between some boxes. |
| 11/22 13:25 | Dr. Richard Liguori declares Officer J.D. Tippit dead on arrival at Dallas's Methodist Hospital. |
| 11/22 13:26 | Lyndon Johnson, his wife, and a battery of Secret Service agents are ushered into two unmarked Dallas police cars. They're hoping to attract as little attention as possible until the new President is safely on board Air Force One, which is still parked at Love Field. |
| 11/22 13:27 | A recently launched American satellite, Relay-1, transmits the first trans-Pacific television signal from California to Japan. The broadcast was supposed to consist of a pre-recorded message from President Kennedy, but instead carries the news that he has been shot. |
| 11/22 13:27 | Sheriff Bill Decker is leaving Parkland Hospital when WFAA reporter Bert Shipp asks him for an update on Kennedy's condition. "Bert," he says, "you ever seen a deer hit in the back of the head? Gone." |
| 11/22 13:28 | Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S. Attorney General, has only just received the news of his brother's death, but he springs into action on the phone, ordering the President's personal files to be sealed and for his secret Oval Office taping system to be removed. |
| 11/22 13:29 | Mildred Hamer of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, boards a city bus, visibly distressed, and starts telling the other passengers about the shooting of Kennedy. Then she collapses, suffering a heart attack that immediately proves fatal. |
| 11/22 13:30 | Mortician Vernon O'Neal arrives at Parkland with his best casket and pushes it into the emergency room. But he immediately sees that Kennedy's wounds will stain the inside with blood. With the help of a few nurses, he begins carefully wrapping the casket's interior in plastic. |
| 11/22 13:30 | At the Texas School Book Depository, police are trying to account for every employee who was in the building at the time of the shooting and get their witness testimony. Roy Truly can only think of one of his employees who isn't here right now: Lee Oswald. |
| 11/22 13:31 | Don Reynolds, learning that President Kennedy was killed and that the man he's testifying against is now President Johnson, tries to take his evidence back from the senators. "I guess you won't need these. ... You can just forget that I ever said anything if you want to." |
| 11/22 13:31 | Seeing a mortician wheeling a casket into the operating room, Jackie Kennedy slips back into the room, right behind him. She returns again to her husband's body, then takes off her wedding ring and puts it on his finger. |
| 11/22 13:32 | Dr. Earl Rose, the medical examiner of Dallas County, arrives at Parkland. Seeing that a casket is already being prepared, he begins to point out that Texas law requires him to conduct an autopsy in a situation like this. But the Secret Service isn't listening to him. |
| 11/22 13:33 | Now that Johnson is away from the scene, acting Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff steps behind the teacher's desk in a medical classroom and announces: "President John F. Kennedy died at approximately 1:00 Central Standard Time today here in Dallas." |
| 11/22 13:34 | Aboard the Cabinet plane over the Pacific, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, visibly shaken, informs the crew and his fellow passengers that Kennedy has died. |
| 11/22 13:35 | The UPI newswire is carrying its 56th bulletin about the shooting when the teletype is interrupted by a new brief message: "FLASH – PRESIDENT KENNEDY DEAD". |
| 11/22 13:36 | Johnny Brewer, the manager of Hardy's Shoe Store, is hearing the wail of police sirens when a disheveled-looking man runs into the store's entryway. Then he watches the man run a few doors down and slips past the ticket booth of the Texas Theater without paying. |
| 11/22 13:37 | Governor John Connally's wounds are severe, but doctors in Parkland's Operating Room 5 are hopeful that they can save his life. They are now making an incision into his chest, beginning what will certainly be a complex surgical procedure. |
| 11/22 13:38 | On CBS television, Walter Cronkite delivers the latest news. "From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time." |
| 11/22 13:39 | Lyndon Johnson arrives at Love Field and boards Air Force One. But he refuses to leave Dallas without Jackie Kennedy, and she won't leave without her husband's body, and the hospital won't release Kennedy's body without an autopsy, which could take days to thoroughly complete. |
| 11/22 13:40 | Police storm into the Oak Cliff Library, a few blocks from the site where Officer Tippit was shot, after a man was seen running into the building. But they realize almost immediately that he was just a library employee running to tell his friends that the President was shot. |
| 11/22 13:45 | Laura Huxley is filling a needle with LSD when she hears a television report that Kennedy has been assassinated. But the news doesn't deter her from her mission, and she injects the psychedelic drug in the arm of her dying husband. |
| 11/22 13:46 | The Dallas police get a call from the Texas Theater about a suspicious person sneaking inside. As soon as the location is mentioned on the police radio, every cop in the area heads over, determined to catch the man who killed one of their own (and perhaps also the President). |
| 11/22 13:48 | The lobby of the Texas Theater is rapidly filling with police officers, who order the house lights in the theater turned up and the audience searched. |
| 11/22 13:48 | The American flag flying atop the White House has just been lowered to half-staff. |
| 11/22 13:48 | TASS, the Soviet news agency, sends out a bulletin: "It has just been officially announced that United States President John F. Kennedy has died in hospital after an attempt was made on his life by persons, as believed, from among the extreme right-wing elements." |
| 11/22 13:49 | The Boston Symphony Orchestra interrupts a live radio performance to inform the audience that President Kennedy has been killed. The orchestra's librarian has spent the last 10 minutes hurriedly gathering the sheet music for Beethoven's Funeral March. |
| 11/22 13:50 | Johnny Brewer points out the man he saw sneaking into the Texas Theater, and a police officer orders him onto his feet. The man says, "Well, it's all over now," then punches the cop in the face. Three more officers ambush him from behind. |
| 11/22 13:50 | The Canadian House of Commons has adjourned as a mark of respect, after being informed of Kennedy's death by Prime Minister Lester Pearson. |
| 11/22 13:51 | Struggling with a group of police, the suspect in the Texas Theater tries to pull out his revolver. The cops wrestle the gun out of his hand and quickly manage to slap a pair of handcuffs on him. |
| 11/22 13:51 | Ralph Paul, owner of a drive-in restaurant in Arlington, gets a phone call from his friend Jack Ruby. In disbelief at the assassination, Ruby urges him to close his restaurant for the weekend in mourning, something which Paul can hardly afford to do. |
| 11/22 13:52 | Police drag their suspect out of the Texas Theater and shove him in the back of a squad car. Rifling through the man's wallet, they see two different names on his various ID cards: "A.J. Hidell" and "Lee Harvey Oswald". They ask him which name is really his. He doesn't answer. |
| 11/22 13:56 | Johnson calls Attorney General Robert Kennedy from the tarmac. He expresses his condolences, then turns to the reason for his call. "A lot of people down here think I should be sworn in right away", he says. "Who could swear me in?" |
| 11/22 13:58 | Lee Oswald, alias A.J. Hidell, is driven to Dallas police headquarters. His arresting officers warn him that a mob of photographers are waiting for him, and offer to conceal him from view. "Why should I hide my face?", he asks. "I haven't done anything to be ashamed of." |
| 11/22 13:59 | Approximately 175 million Americans, making up 92% of the country's population, have by now learned of the assassination. The unprecedented speed with which the news has traveled reflects tremendous advancement in technology since the death of President Roosevelt 18 years ago. |
| 11/22 14:00 | As he promised, reporter Harry McCormick brings Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels to the office of Abraham Zapruder, now surrounded by reporters. He's relieved to hear from someone who wants a copy of his film of the assassination for something other than the money it's worth. |
| 11/22 14:01 | John V. Kennedy, 75, of Summit Hill, Pennsylvania, hears of the assassination of his presidential namesake while standing in front of a vacant store next to his house. He learned of the assassination of President McKinley in 1901 while standing in almost exactly the same spot. |
| 11/22 14:02 | Bill Shelley, a foreman at the Book Depository, is giving his testimony to a homicide detective at police headquarters when he sees Lee Oswald, one of his employees, being brought in for interrogation. "He works for us," Shelley explains. |
| 11/22 14:03 | Justice of the Peace Theron Ward continues to insist that Dallas authorities need to conduct an autopsy before his body can leave the county. "It shouldn't take more than three hours," he tries to assure the President's agitated aides. |
| 11/22 14:04 | Asked to make an exception, Theron Ward refuses: "It's just another homicide case, as far as I'm concerned." Finally, Ken O'Donnell loses his temper, and retorts, "Go fuck yourself! We're leaving!" The Secret Service wheel Kennedy's casket out of the hospital, ignoring the law. |
| 11/22 14:05 | Kennedy's aides, with Jackie and her husband's body in tow, pile into Vernon O'Neal's hearse to finally head back to Love Field. Over the phone, Dallas County district attorney Henry Wade tells the officers at Parkland to let them leave. |
| 11/22 14:08 | Telephone systems across the country are jammed with an enormous volume of calls. But perhaps nowhere is it worse than in Washington, where even senior government officials are failing to reach each other. Many fear that this is deliberate, part of a larger coordinated attack. |
| 11/22 14:10 | The United Nations General Assembly, meeting at this hour in New York, holds a minute of silence and promptly adjourns. |
| 11/22 14:14 | The hearse arrives at Love Field. Kennedy's aides immediately pull the heavy, bronze-covered casket out and, with great difficulty, carry it up the stairs and inside Air Force One. |
| 11/22 14:15 | Federal judge Sarah T. Hughes has just driven home from the Trade Mart. She calls the courthouse to tell them she's not coming back to work today, only to be told that Lyndon Johnson wants her to swear him in as the new president. She agrees, and gets back in her car. |
| 11/22 14:20 | Deputy Attorney General Nick Katzenbach, at the White House, is on the phone with Johnson's secretary on Air Force One, relaying the words of the oath of office. He wasn't sure where to find the oath at first, but then discovered that it's written in the Constitution itself. |
| 11/22 14:25 | At the WFAA studios, Abraham Zapruder describes what he saw through his camera viewfinder. But the station doesn't have the equipment to process his 8mm film of the shooting. The Secret Service arranges for a Kodak facility near Love Field to handle it. |
| 11/22 14:26 | Captain Will Fritz starts to interrogate the man suspected of killing both Officer Tippit and President Kennedy. Fritz asks the suspect for his name, and this time he doesn't dodge the question. "Lee Harvey Oswald", he replies. |
| 11/22 14:27 | Following the lead of its counterpart in New York, the Toronto Stock Exchange has closed for the day. |
| 11/22 14:30 | The Cabinet plane lands at Hickam Field in Honolulu to refuel for the long flight back to Washington. The top government officials aboard the plane have prepared a brief statement of condolences to give to the press, as well as a message to let Tokyo know they're not coming. |
| 11/22 14:31 | Judge Sarah Hughes arrives at Love Field, clambers onto Air Force One, and is swiftly handed an index card with the presidential oath of office typewritten on it. The plane's small stateroom is already overflowing with people. |
| 11/22 14:35 | As she prepares to administer the oath of office, someone hands Judge Hughes a small book with a cross tooled into its leather binding, telling her it's Kennedy's personal Bible. No one quite notices that it's actually a missal, a collection of Catholic prayers. |
| 11/22 14:38 | Judge Hughes swears in Lyndon Johnson as the 36th President of the United States, his wife standing to his right, Jackie Kennedy – still spattered in her husband's blood – to his left. His first presidential order is simple: "Let's get airborne." |
| 11/22 14:40 | Dallas radio reports for the first time that Lee Harvey Oswald has been arrested in connection with today's two shootings. Across the city, people who know Lee are stunned to hear the report – including his brother Robert and his mother. |
| 11/22 14:41 | A woman calls the offices of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, asking for a ride to Dallas. "Lady, this is not a taxi company, and besides, the president has been shot", replies reporter Bob Schieffer. But she says, "I know, they think my son is the one who shot him." |
| 11/22 14:42 | Hearing that Lee Oswald is the suspect in the shooting of President Kennedy, workers at the downtown Dallas post office recognize the name as a man they recently rented a P.O. box to. The box will be promptly placed under round-the-clock surveillance. |
| 11/22 14:47 | Air Force One takes off from Love Field, headed back to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, D.C. Out of precaution, Colonel Jim Swindal is piloting the plane at 41,000 feet, well above the ordinary cruising altitude of a passenger jet. |
| 11/22 14:50 | In the basement of police headquarters, FBI agent James Hosty tells Lt. Jack Revill that Oswald had once defected to the Soviet Union and admits that the FBI had a file on him. "If you knew all this," Revill says, "why the hell didn't you tell us?" Hosty replies, "I couldn't." |
| 11/22 15:00 | Former vice president John Nance Garner, who spoke with President Kennedy over the phone a few hours ago, wakes from a nap and is told that Kennedy has been assassinated. The 95-year-old is so shocked by the news that he promptly goes back to bed. |
| 11/22 15:05 | The Cabinet plane in Honolulu is almost done refueling when Press Secretary Pierre Salinger gets a call from his old friend Pete Rozelle, head of the NFL. "What should we do?", he asks. Salinger tells him Kennedy would have wanted the league to play on Sunday. |
| 11/22 15:10 | Dallas local television shows a picture taken of Lee Oswald as he was brought in for questioning. Earlene Roberts, who doesn't know the "Lee Oswald" that police have come to her boarding house about, recognizes the man on the TV immediately as her tenant O. H. Lee. |
| 11/22 15:14 | Medical examiner Earl Rose was deprived of the chance to conduct an autopsy on President Kennedy. But his job isn't done for the day: now he must begin the autopsy of Officer Tippit. |
| 11/22 15:15 | In the sky somewhere over Arkansas, President Johnson makes his first official telephone call from Air Force One – to the grieving mother of his predecessor, Rose Kennedy. |
| 11/22 15:16 | Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels has brought Abraham Zapruder to the Eastman Kodak laboratory, where they begin developing his film as quickly as they can. But Sorrels can't wait for it to be ready – he learns that a suspect is in custody and rushes back to the office. |
| 11/22 15:25 | Gawler's, the historic Washington, D.C. funeral home that once buried Abraham Lincoln's son Willie, gets a call from the Army Chief of Staff for Ceremonies, asking them to embalm Kennedy's body and arrange his funeral. |
| 11/22 15:30 | Police arrive at the home of Ruth Paine in Irving, where Marina Oswald lives with her children. With Paine translating, they ask if Lee owns a gun. She points them to the rolled-up blanket in the garage, which is opened up and found to be empty. |
| 11/22 16:00 | As a security measure, the Mexican government has abruptly closed its border checkpoints with the United States. It's estimated that about 3,000 Americans and Mexicans are now stuck in the wrong country, and they may have to remain there for several more days. |
| 11/22 16:01 | Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had been attending the United Nations meeting when it was interrupted by the news, speaks to the press in a statement carried on all three television networks. |
| 11/22 16:02 | In Paxton, Massachusetts, three elderly nuns – all sisters – and their chauffeur have drowned after their car careened off the road and plunged into a reservoir. Witnesses speculate that the driver may have suffered a heart attack after learning of the President's death. |
| 11/22 16:03 | The producers of "The Plot to Assassinate the Chase Manhattan Bank," a new play about a bank robbery set to premiere off-Broadway on Tuesday, have announced that the show's title will be changed to "The Plot Against the Chase Manhattan Bank". |
| 11/22 16:10 | After parrying a barrage of questions for the past hour, Lee Oswald announces he won't answer any more. So the police walk him over to the elevator that will take him to a jail cell. They realize no one had searched him up to this point, and find five live rounds in his pocket. |
| 11/22 16:15 | Lieutenant Revill, appalled that the FBI never told Dallas police about Oswald, dictates an affidavit stating that the agency "was aware of the Subject and that they had information that this Subject was capable of committing the assassination of President Kennedy." |
| 11/22 16:16 | The Beatles are forced to cut short their second show tonight, but not because of the events across the pond. During "Twist and Shout", a teenage girl rushes the stage and grabs guitarist George Harrison. Security takes her away and ushers the foursome off-stage mid-song. |
| 11/22 16:17 | A woman calls CBS News: "I'd like to complain about CBS having on the air at this time that Walter Cronkite, crying his crocodile tears when we know he hated John Kennedy." The man on the other end replies: "You're speaking to Walter Cronkite and you are a damn idiot!" |
| 11/22 16:30 | As Air Force One glides over the Shenandoah Valley and approaches D.C., President Johnson calls Nellie Connally, still at Parkland waiting for her husband. "I love you, darling, and I know that everything's going to be all right, isn't it? ... Give him a hug and a kiss for me." |
| 11/22 16:33 | With the Secret Service concerned about security at the White House, the Kennedy children have been brought to the house of their grandmother, Janet Bouvier Auchincloss, in the Georgetown neighborhood of D.C. |
| 11/22 16:35 | Helen Markham, who witnessed the shooting of Tippit, has been sick and nearly overcome with fear ever since. She's ushered into a room where Lee Oswald is No. 2 in a police lineup. She affirms that No. 2 was the man who killed Tippit, then faints. |
| 11/22 16:45 | A group of police detectives has begun emptying out the contents of Lee Oswald's boarding room – including quite a bit of Communist literature – and packing them in a squad car to be taken for further investigation. |
| 11/22 16:58 | Air Force One lands at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C. Government officials and reporters have been gathering here since before the plane left Dallas, and television cameras try to capture its arrival in the fading light of dusk. |
| 11/22 17:00 | Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy is the first to run up the stairs of Air Force One and board the plane at Andrews AFB. President Johnson reaches out to shake his hand, but Bobby doesn't even notice as he races to Jackie's side in the rear of the aircraft. |
| 11/22 17:03 | Live television cameras capture the removal of Kennedy's casket from the plane, followed by Jackie and the deceased president's aides, all making their way into a U.S. Navy ambulance for transport to the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. |
| 11/22 17:05 | President Johnson suddenly realizes that he left his Stetson hat behind when he got out of the limousine at Parkland. When a Secret Service agent tells him that no one thought to take it with them, Johnson shouts back, "Call back to Dallas and have one of your men get it!" |
| 11/22 17:08 | President Johnson has just stepped off Air Force One. He approaches a table of press microphones and prepares to make a brief speech that will be his first address to the nation. |
| 11/22 17:13 | The Army helicopter carrying Lyndon Johnson takes off from Andrews Air Force Base. It will bring him, his wife Lady Bird, and his assistants to the White House to begin the work of the new president. |
| 11/22 17:15 | Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago is one of the first churches in the nation to hold a special Mass to mourn America's first Catholic president. There has been little time for word of the service to spread, but the church is still nearly filled. |
| 11/22 17:23 | The four-hour-long surgery on Governor Connally has ended in complete success. A medic turns to the Governor's wife, Nellie, and says, "He's going to make it." |
| 11/22 17:26 | After a brief flight, President Johnson's helicopter has arrived safely on the South Lawn of the White House. At the same moment, Kennedy's body is being driven past the White House on the way to Bethesda. |
| 11/22 17:28 | The aides with President Johnson are leading him to the Oval Office, but he's not prepared to take over the room just yet. Instead, he crosses the South Lawn to the Executive Office Building, where his vice-presidential desk sits. |
| 11/22 17:35 | Searching for a unique perspective on today's events, photographer Carl Mydans of Life magazine is on a train leaving Grand Central Station for Stamford, Connecticut. He notices that almost everyone on board is burying their face in a newspaper and snaps a picture. |
| 11/22 17:40 | The new First Lady, Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, arrives at the Johnson home, although she will not be living there for much longer. A Secret Service agent informs her that the phones have been disconnected and replaced with ones connecting through the White House switchboard. |
| 11/22 17:54 | For his first presidential meeting in D.C., Johnson has summoned Senator William Fulbright, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, and W. Averell Harriman, an expert on the Kremlin. Both tell the new President they highly doubt the Soviets were involved in the assassination. |
| 11/22 17:55 | After crossing the whole of the city, the Navy ambulance carrying President Kennedy's body arrives at Bethesda's Naval Medical Center. It will be a long night as federal investigators conduct their autopsy, but Jackie is still determined not to leave her husband. |
| 11/22 17:56 | Ruth Paine and Marina Oswald have been brought to Dallas police headquarters, where they will be interrogated for anything they may know about Lee. |
| 11/22 17:59 | Almost all Americans by now are aware of the assassination of President Kennedy – approximately 99.8 percent of the country is estimated to have learned the news in a span of just five hours. |
| 11/22 18:00 | A spokesman for St. Coletta's in Jefferson, Wisconsin, the institution where Kennedy's mentally handicapped sister Rose lives, confirms that she's heard the news: "She knows he is dead. She was watching on television." |
| 11/22 18:01 | The Los Angeles Public Library reports that all of its books on past presidential assassinations, as well as those on the life of Lyndon Johnson, have been checked out by curious patrons. |
| 11/22 18:10 | President Johnson is calling all three living former Presidents, inviting them to meet him at the White House as soon as possible. Herbert Hoover, 89, is too ill to take the call, but Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower agree immediately. |
| 11/22 18:15 | Lieutenant Carl Day makes his way through the crowd of reporters at police headquarters, holding a rifle above his head. The stunned reporters immediately recognize that they're looking at the weapon found at the Book Depository and likely used to kill the President. |
| 11/22 18:16 | Bus driver Cecil McWatters makes a stop for two men who turn out to be police. They have a transfer found in Lee Oswald's pocket. McWatters knows he issued that transfer – it's marked by his distinctive crescent-shaped hole punch – and he has to identify the man he gave it to. |
| 11/22 18:17 | Police show the Book Depository rifle to Marina Oswald. Through Ruth Paine as her translator, she says that it looks just like Lee's rifle, but she can't be sure that it's the same one. |
| 11/22 18:20 | President Johnson writes a letter to John Jr. "It will be many years before you understand fully what a great man your father was. His loss is a deep personal tragedy for all of us, but I wanted you particularly to know that I share your grief. You can always be proud of him." |
| 11/22 18:25 | Nightclub owner Jack Ruby is on his way to synagogue when he decides to stop in at Dallas police headquarters, a place he knows well. He tries to push open the door to Captain Fritz's office, and when an officer stops him, he laughs it off. |
| 11/22 18:30 | President Johnson writes to Caroline: "Your father's death has been a great tragedy for the Nation, as well as for you, and I wanted you to know how much my thoughts are of you at this time. He was a wise and devoted man. You can always be proud of what he did for his country." |
| 11/22 18:31 | At President Johnson's temporary desk in the Executive Office Building, workers have begun hooking up a connection to the teletype hotline between Washington and Moscow. The hotline was established in August to avoid another near-conflict like last year's Cuban Missile Crisis. |
| 11/22 18:35 | In the Bethesda morgue, naval physicians James Humes and Thornton Boswell open Kennedy's casket – the interior, despite Vernon O'Neal's best efforts, now deeply stained with blood – and begin an autopsy. They've been instructed to hurry it up, since Jackie is waiting upstairs. |
| 11/22 18:40 | President Johnson finishes dinner – a couple sandwiches and a bowl of broth ordered up from the White House kitchen, which he wolfed down in the span of a few minutes – and promptly leaves his office to meet with the leadership of both houses of Congress. |
| 11/22 18:41 | At Bethesda, Jackie Kennedy greets her mother, who mentions casually that the children have been brought to her house. "Why are they there?", she replies. "They should be in their own beds. Mummy, my God, those poor children! Their lives shouldn't be disrupted, now of all times!" |
| 11/22 18:56 | At their mother's request, Caroline and John Jr. now have been brought back to the White House. They are still unaware that anything has happened to their father, but their caretakers can't keep it that way for much longer. |
| 11/22 18:58 | A White House guard hands Agent Bob Foster a paper bag and says it's for him to open and nobody else. It contains Jackie's blood-spattered pillbox hat, and the word "HILL" is written on the side. "What do you think my name is?", Foster asks. "Clint Hill", replies the guard. |
| 11/22 19:00 | Since the first reports of the shooting broke, the New York Daily News switchboard has recorded an overwhelming 3,126 telephone inquiries about Kennedy's assassination, and 642 people have stopped at the paper's Information Bureau in person. |
| 11/22 19:01 | As they see the first X-ray images of the bullet fragments embedded in Kennedy's head, the autopsy doctors at Bethesda realize that their primary task – extract enough of the bullet for forensics to be performed – won't be finished up quickly. They call for a ballistics expert. |
| 11/22 19:05 | In Lompoc, California, thousands are at home watching the news on television when their sets suddenly blink out. The culprit: some youngsters playing with a guy wire caused a short circuit, causing a blackout across the whole north side of the city. |
| 11/22 19:10 | Judge David Johnston walks into the room where Oswald is being held and announces that he's been arraigned in the murder of J. D. Tippit. Oswald protests that he's being arraigned in a police station rather than a courtroom: "I might as well be in Russia!" |
| 11/22 19:15 | Lee Oswald's brother, Robert, and his mother, Marguerite, have just arrived separately at Dallas police headquarters. The police are too busy to hear from them right now, so they wait together in the lobby, slowly realizing that their lives will never be the same again. |
| 11/22 19:20 | After "tripping" on LSD for nearly six hours, author Aldous Huxley's breathing has slowed to a stop. He has died at the age of 69. |
| 11/22 19:28 | Once again, Oswald is moved to another room in police headquarters, which means pulling him through a tightly packed hallway now filled with hundreds of reporters from all over the country. In the brief windows he gets, he's willing to speak to them. |
| 11/22 19:30 | The autopsy doctors remove Kennedy's brain – a disturbingly easy task, as his skull is so damaged that the tissue slides right out – and preserve it in a solution of formaldehyde for further study later. |
| 11/22 19:50 | It's Caroline Kennedy's bedtime. Her mother is still preoccupied, so the difficult task of telling the girl that her father is dead falls to her nanny, Maud Shaw. "Your father has been shot", she says. "They took him to a hospital, but the doctors couldn't make him better." |
| 11/22 19:55 | Another trip through the hallway for Oswald, and this time he's even more talkative to the assembled press. "They're taking me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union," he says. "I'm just a patsy!" |
| 11/22 20:00 | Following several hours of confusion, the Mexican government has begun to allow American citizens back into the U.S. through its border checkpoints. Mexicans returning to their own country, however, are being subjected to a thorough search before they can enter Mexico. |
| 11/22 20:06 | Johnson calls Supreme Court justice Arthur Goldberg, a staunch liberal and one of the strongest opponents to his selection as Kennedy's running mate, to ask for his help in uniting the country. In a sense, the 1964 presidential campaign has just begun. |
| 11/22 20:30 | After nearly two hours of autopsy work, the doctors have found many small fragments of the bullet that hit Kennedy's back, but the bulk of it is still missing. They call for a full-body X-ray to be sure, which will take at least an hour to carry out. |
| 11/22 20:52 | FBI offices across the country receive a Teletype message from headquarters: "The Bureau is conducting an investigation to determine who is responsible for the assassination. You are therefore instructed to follow and resolve all allegations pertaining to the assassination." |
| 11/22 21:00 | Waiting at the police station, Lee Oswald's mother and brother meet his wife Marina, who they haven't seen for more than a year. They didn't even know that Lee and Marina had a second child last month, who Marina now hands to her grandmother. |
| 11/22 21:30 | Three librarians have been dispatched to the Library of Congress to find a drawing of the catafalque that Lincoln's casket laid on, one detailed enough to build an accurate replica from. The library's lights are disabled at this time of night, so they're hunting with flashlights. |
| 11/22 21:55 | Secret Service agent Max Phillips wraps up a package and writes a note to cover it: "Enclosed is an 8 mm movie film taken by Mr. A. Zapruder, 501 Elm St., Dallas, Texas." He hands it to an airplane courier who will bring it to Washington as quickly as possible. |
| 11/22 22:00 | Abraham Zapruder returns home and gets a call from Life magazine editor Richard Stolley, who's been ringing him without success for hours. Zapruder refuses to discuss the film he took tonight, and tells Stolley to come to his office tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. |
| 11/22 22:01 | For the past several hours, employees at the Crescent Firearms Company in New York have been rummaging through records, trying to determine who purchased the rifle found at the Book Depository. Finally, they find it: Klein's, a catalog house in Chicago, bought No. C2766. |
| 11/22 22:02 | The autopsy doctors at Bethesda have completed their laborious full-body X-ray of Kennedy's body, but the bullet that hit him in the back is nowhere to be found. It's a mystery – but now an FBI specialist lets them know that a bullet was found on a stretcher at Parkland. |
| 11/22 22:30 | For hours, Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Bob Schieffer has commandeered a room in police headquarters to interview the Oswalds and call in what he's learned. Finally, an FBI agent realizes what he's doing and throws him out: "I'm going to kill you if I ever see you again." |
| 11/22 22:40 | A 32-year-old woman in Dallas has been fatally stabbed by her lover. This is the third murder to occur in the city today, and the 113th so far this year, maintaing Dallas' position as the city with the highest homicide rate in Texas. |
| 11/22 22:45 | President Johnson returns home – not to the White House, but his private residence on the far northwestern side of D.C. He remarks, "I guess I am the only person in the United States who doesn't know what happened today", and asks his aide Horace Busby to turn on the TV. |
| 11/22 23:00 | The doctors in Bethesda are just about ready to finish up Kennedy's autopsy when Secret Service agents come in, carrying three pieces of his skull that had just been found on the floor of the limousine when it was brought back to the White House garage. |
| 11/22 23:01 | Jack Ruby doesn't have much to do tonight, since he's closed his nightclubs all weekend at great personal cost. Instead, he shows up again at Dallas police headquarters, to offer the reporters some homemade sandwiches as they wait for another peek at Lee Oswald. |
| 11/22 23:10 | Back at home, Marina Oswald discovered that her husband left his wedding ring on the bedside table before he left for work this morning. |
| 11/22 23:26 | Complaint No. F-154, formally charging Oswald with the murder of President Kennedy, is drawn up at Dallas police headquarters. Judge Johnston signs it, fulfilling the police's hope that they would have their man before the day is over. |
| 11/22 23:30 | Dallas police are hesitant to let the FBI take the Book Depository rifle to its crime lab in Washington, though the bureau's agents insist they can perform far better forensic tests. Finally, Chief Jesse Curry agrees to loan the rifle to the FBI for 24 hours. |
| 11/22 23:31 | After spending nearly the entirety of this tragic day in the air, the Cabinet members who were on their way to Japan this morning have landed at Andrews Air Force Base. Secretary of State Dean Rusk will make a brief statement to the press. |
| 11/22 23:50 | Dallas district attorney Henry Wade announces that Oswald is being charged with Kennedy's murder to the crowd of reporters packing the hallway at police headquarters. |
| 11/23 00:02 | After an unprecedented 11 hours of news coverage without breaking for commercials, NBC-TV's Frank McGee signs off for the night. NBC is the first of the three TV networks to end its coverage tonight; CBS and ABC are waiting for more from Dallas police. |
| 11/23 00:12 | Police bring Oswald out for a press conference. He hasn't been arraigned with killing Kennedy yet, so when a reporter points out that he's already been charged with the President's murder, it's the first he hears of the charge. |
| 11/23 00:19 | Oswald is pulled away from the cameras, as the crowd of reporters starts to get unruly, and taken to a maximum-security jail cell. DA Henry Wade steps up to take Oswald's place and speak to the press, although he has little information on hand to give them. |
| 11/23 00:30 | Rev. Theodore Hesburg, president of the University of Notre Dame, and University of Iowa president Virgil Hancher have released a joint statement announcing that today's football game has been canceled. The season is thus over for the Iowa Hawkeyes, who went 3–3–2 this year. |
| 11/23 00:31 | The Toledo Newspaper Guild, on strike for the past week, agrees to withdraw its pickets so the Toledo Blade can cover the assassination. At this hour, it's already too late to write a Saturday morning edition, so reporters will focus on producing a comprehensive Sunday paper. |
| 11/23 00:35 | Realizing that they neglected to take Oswald's fingerprints when he was booked, police drag him out of his cell once again and bring him to the fourth floor. He's uncooperative enough that the police have to press his ink-covered fingers onto the paper for him. |
| 11/23 00:45 | President Johnson huddles with a few close aides, planning an ambitious legislative agenda for the 11 months before the election. He's bursting with ideas: when he hears the name Truman uttered on TV, he says, "By God, I intend to pass Harry Truman's medical insurance bill." |
| 11/23 01:00 | Joe Molina, one of Lee Oswald's coworkers at the Book Depository and a card-carrying Communist, is served with a search warrant at his home. |
| 11/23 01:05 | Lee Harvey Oswald's official mugshot is taken by Dallas police. |
| 11/23 01:10 | DA Henry Wade is asked whether Oswald belonged to any organizations. He knows of only one, "the Free Cuba movement". Jack Ruby, still standing among the reporters, speaks up to correct him: "Fair Play for Cuba Committee." |
| 11/23 01:15 | Guarding the rear of Johnson's house, Agent Jerry Blaine hears footsteps. Someone's circling the building clockwise, which the Secret Service is strictly taught never to do. Blaine raises his gun, finger on the trigger, then looks up. He's pointing it at President Johnson. |
| 11/23 01:35 | Judge Johnston formally arraigns Lee Oswald again, this time with the murder of President Kennedy. Oswald says once again that he wants a lawyer, although he has made no effort to contact one when given the chance in the past several hours. |
| 11/23 02:00 | KLIF radio host Russ Knight plays the tape of a brief interview he just conducted with DA Henry Wade. When the recording is finished, Knight says that he managed to arrange the interview "on a tip from Jack Ruby, local nightclub owner." |
| 11/23 02:09 | Johnson aide Cliff Carter tells the new President that he should probably get some sleep. He agrees, but he won't be getting much – he fully intends to leave for his first full day of work at 8:00 a.m., less than five hours from now. |
| 11/23 02:10 | At a Dallas hotel, a group of frazzled reporters beg for a jug of liquor, which can't be sold over the counter here. "That would be breaking the law," says the bellman. "There've been enough laws broken in Dallas today." |
| 11/23 02:50 | At the Henderson Hall barracks in Arlington, Virginia, a group of Marines are suddenly awoken and told to get on a transport bus to Washington. At the last minute, it was realized that no one had arranged an honor guard at the White House for the arrival of Kennedy's casket. |
| 11/23 02:56 | The morticians from Gawler's Funeral Home have finished the difficult task of embalming the President's body. Jackie Kennedy, now joined in an early-morning vigil by most of her siblings-in-law as well as her aides, is informed that they're ready to return to the White House. |
| 11/23 03:00 | Dallas police have finished their thorough search of the home of Oswald's coworker Joe Molina, finding nothing that would link him to the assassination. Molina agrees to come down to police headquarters in the morning for further questioning. |
| 11/23 03:01 | Police in Honolulu, Hawaii make a grisly discovery: the mummified body of a woman who died approximately ten months ago. The children of Daisy Vera Cruz say that a kahuna spirit told them their mother would soon be resurrected, and have been preserving her body ever since. |
| 11/23 03:05 | The President's casket is now being loaded back into the Navy ambulance for the ten-mile drive to the White House. |
| 11/23 03:24 | The procession of cars carrying Kennedy's casket, his family, and aides, passes through the west gate of the White House. Private visitations will be held throughout the coming day in the East Room. |
| 11/23 03:34 | At the White House, Kennedy's casket is laid on a replica of Lincoln's catafalque, just built by carpenters. The lid is opened for Bobby Kennedy and a few others to see the remains. Despite the extensive restoration work, they agree the funeral should be closed-casket. |
| 11/23 04:00 | At Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago, the sale record for the assassination rifle is found. It was sold to "A. Hidell" of Dallas in March, matching the false name that was found on some of Oswald's identification cards when he was arrested. |
| 11/23 04:01 | Jack Ruby arrives at the offices of the Dallas Times Herald, instructing them to remove his clubs' ads for the weekend and dropping off one of his twist-boards. Then he launches into an angry, tearful rant about the newspaper ad criticizing Kennedy hours before the assassination. |
| 11/23 04:15 | The Golden Age Nursing Home in Fitchville, Ohio, has just burned to the ground. 63 of the home's 84 residents were killed, making it the nation's deadliest blaze in five years. |
| 11/23 04:30 | Jack Ruby steps into his apartment and shakes his roommate George Senator awake. He's just seen a poster calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court chief justice Earl Warren, and he wants George to help him investigate whether this might be part of some grand conspiracy. |
| 11/23 04:45 | A helicopter lands on the White House lawn. FBI agent Vince Drain steps out, carrying the rifle found at the Book Depository. He will bring it to Justice Department headquarters, where the rifle will be tested thoroughly – and, just as importantly, shown off to J. Edgar Hoover. |
| 11/23 06:00 | Reporters camped outside Johnson's house can't help but notice that the lights inside are coming on just as the sun is rising. After less than four hours of sleep, President Johnson is already getting ready for his first full day on the job. |
| 11/23 06:01 | Increasingly suspicious, Jack Ruby stops by Dallas' main post office to investigate the P.O. box listed in the ad criticizing Kennedy. He can see that the box is already full of mail, but the clerk on duty won't give him the name of the person who rented it. |
| 11/23 06:05 | Press Secretary Pierre Salinger is woken by a phone call: "The President wants to talk to you." For a moment, he thinks yesterday's events must have been a dream, before President Johnson comes on the line and asks Salinger to stay on as press secretary. |
| 11/23 06:20 | Rose Kennedy, the slain President's grief-stricken mother, attends morning Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She is alone and dressed all in black. |
| 11/23 06:25 | Governor Connally's assistant Bill Stinson provides an update on Connally's condition: "He slept well and all vital signs are good. Doctors are pleased with his progress." |
| 11/23 06:30 | At the White House, still groggy from sleep, Caroline Kennedy wanders into her father's bedroom, finding her grandmother Janet Bouvier Auchincloss. The five-year-old girl asks, "He's dead, isn't he?" |
| 11/23 06:31 | At Providence Hospital in Chicopee, Massachusetts, Claire Getto was in labor when she learned of President Kennedy's death. Now, as her baby is delivered – six pounds, 13 ounces – she names him John Fitzgerald Getto. |
| 11/23 06:40 | After a long and sleepless night, Jack Ruby is watching a recap of yesterday's events on the TV in his apartment. Finally, he decides to go to bed. |
| 11/23 06:45 | On NBC television, "Today Girl" Barbara Walters reports: "The streets of New York were deserted last night." |
| 11/23 07:00 | Disneyland is closed today. This is the first time in the eight-year history of the popular California theme park that it has closed due to unforeseen circumstances. |
| 11/23 07:15 | For the first time since he went under for surgery, Texas governor John Connally regains consciousness in his bed at Parkland Hospital. When his wife Nellie informs him that President Kennedy is dead, he replies, "That's what I was afraid of." |
| 11/23 07:16 | Jackie Kennedy got about three hours of sleep last night, and that was only with the help of a sedative. Now she is reunited with her children for the first time since she left for Texas. Caroline already knows, but Jackie tries to explain what happened to John Jr. |
| 11/23 07:30 | White House staff had been using Kennedy's two-day absence as an opportunity to remodel the Oval Office. He will never get a chance to use it, and President Johnson will surely want to redesign the room to his own taste, so Jackie asks a photographer to preserve how it looked. |
| 11/23 07:40 | President Johnson leaves his house on the northwest side of Washington, a three-story mansion known as "The Elms" that will not be his residence for much longer. He intends to start moving into the White House today. |
| 11/23 08:00 | President Johnson arrives at the White House for his first day of work. He calls Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, into the Oval Office and asks her to move all her belongings out of her office within the next 30 minutes. |
| 11/23 08:01 | At the Church of the Holy Name in Nashville, Tennessee, parishioners conclude an all-night vigil in honor of President Kennedy. An unbroken chain of prayers was held for nearly 19 hours, starting shortly after the news of the assassination was first heard. |
| 11/23 08:02 | Richard Stolley, who called Abraham Zapruder at home last night, is the first to arrive outside his downtown office today. Zapruder won't be here to show his film of the assassination to reporters for another hour, but Stolley is determined to get Life magazine the rights to it. |
| 11/23 08:10 | Fort Lewis, the army base near Tacoma, Washington, fires off a one-gun, one-shot salute to President Kennedy. The cannon fire will be repeated every half-hour throughout the day until sundown. |
| 11/23 08:11 | Robert F. Kennedy, learning that the new President wants his predecessor's staff out of the White House immediately, confronts Johnson outside the Oval Office. Johnson agrees to work out of the Executive Office Building instead of the White House until after the funeral. |
| 11/23 08:15 | President Johnson is escorted into the Situation Room, set up by Kennedy two years ago, to receive his first presidential briefing from CIA director John McCone. The daily briefing was also established by Kennedy in 1961, and Johnson was not aware that it existed until now. |
| 11/23 08:20 | Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara is at Arlington National Cemetery to choose a potential burial site. When the cemetery superintendent tells him that all grave plots are six by ten feet, McNamara replies, "An exception should be made for the President of the United States." |
| 11/23 08:30 | President Johnson enters his temporary office to find Secretary of State Dean Rusk waiting. Rusk offers his resignation so Johnson can choose his own chief diplomat, but the President wants him to stay. The conversation quickly turns to the most pressing foreign issue: Viet Nam. |
| 11/23 08:55 | A funeral Mass is about to begin in the Family Dining Room of the White House. At the last minute, Jackie Kennedy walks in and asks for the service – and the makeshift altar that's just been set up – to be moved into the East Room where her husband's body lies. |
| 11/23 08:58 | Abraham Zapruder arrives at his office to find Secret Service agents and journalists waiting. He threads his newly-developed film into a projector and shows it for the first time. |
| 11/23 08:59 | At all of this afternoon's football league matches across Britain, the Union Jack is flying at half mast and the players on the pitches are wearing black armbands. A minute of silence is about to begin. |
| 11/23 09:00 | At all military bases in the Eastern Time Zone, troops are assembled to receive the official order informing them that their commander-in-chief has died. The same ceremony will occur at 10:00 a.m. in other areas of the country over the next few hours. |
| 11/23 09:01 | President Johnson gets a call from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who provides an update on the investigation of Oswald. "The evidence that they have at the present time is not very, very strong", Hoover tells Johnson, but he's confident that the FBI will prove Oswald's guilt. |
| 11/23 09:02 | In the East Room of the White House, a private funeral Mass is held for 75 of Kennedy's family members and loved ones. The Mass, said by the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh of Notre Dame University, is the first Catholic service ever held in the President's official residence. |
| 11/23 09:10 | Lee Oswald's mother Marguerite and wife Marina are having breakfast at the Paine house in Irving when two reporters from Life magazine show up and start snapping pictures. While the nation's hearts go out to the Kennedys, these reporters want the story of "the other family". |
| 11/23 09:17 | Trying to shore up his support from organized labor in the upcoming election, President Johnson calls AFL-CIO president George Meany and asks to meet with major union heads in person. He also invites Meany to view President Kennedy's casket lying in state. |
| 11/23 09:21 | Johnson sits down for a meeting with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the longest and most comprehensive discussion he has had since he became President. |
| 11/23 09:30 | The morning after conducting the autopsy, Commander Humes is still puzzled by what happened to the bullet that hit Kennedy in the back. He calls Dr. Perry at Parkland, who explains that the hole in his trachea was originally an exit wound that was expanded to insert a tube. |
| 11/23 09:40 | Jackie Kennedy brings her two children – Caroline, who will turn six on the 27th, and John Jr., who will be three on the 25th – into the East Room. Aside from the priests and the honor guard, they are alone with the casket of their husband and father. |
| 11/23 10:00 | In a back room of his office, Abraham Zapruder agrees to give Life magazine's Richard Stolley a copy of the film and the rights to print frames from it for $50,000, all while competing reporters bang on the door and shout "Don't sign anything!" Stolley runs out the back. |
| 11/23 10:01 | While most sporting events across the country have been canceled, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle announces that tomorrow's seven games will go on as scheduled. "Football was Mr. Kennedy's game," Rozelle says. Team owners, players, and fans alike protest the decision. |
| 11/23 10:02 | President Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who was permanently debilitated by a stroke two years ago, is perhaps one of the last people in America to learn of the assassination. His son Ted gently breaks the news to him at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. |
| 11/23 10:10 | Preparing to bring Oswald downstairs for another round of interrogation, police chief Jesse Curry mentions to reporters that the FBI had a file on Oswald and was tracking him in Dallas, but had never shared that information with Dallas police. |
| 11/23 10:15 | St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City concludes its Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass for the President this morning with two songs never before heard from the church's organ: first Taps, then The Star-Spangled Banner. |
| 11/23 10:20 | President Johnson and the First Lady enter the East Room of the White House to join Kennedy's private funeral Mass. |
| 11/23 10:25 | For the first time this morning, Lee Oswald is led through a hallway at Dallas police headquarters for another round of interrogation. This time, the crowd of reporters refrain from asking questions, as police have told them not to do anything that would further upset Oswald. |
| 11/23 10:26 | FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is furious to see Dallas police criticizing his agency on live TV. At his direction, an agent calls Chief Curry and tells him that the FBI is "extremely desirous that you retract your statement to the press." |
| 11/23 11:00 | The new, $8-million Kent County Airport opens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Today's extravagant opening ceremonies have been canceled in the wake of the President's death, but officials cannot postpone the beginning of passenger service due to FAA requirements. |
| 11/23 11:01 | The reporters from Life magazine have brought Marina and Marguerite Oswald back to their suite at the Hotel Adolphus. An FBI agent knocks on the door, planning to bring Marina in for interrogation. Marguerite refuses to let him take her without a lawyer. |
| 11/23 11:02 | Queen Elizabeth II says she is "shocked and horrified" by the news of the American president's assassination. She orders her royal court into mourning for the next week, and it is announced that her husband Prince Philip will fly to Washington for Kennedy's funeral. |
| 11/23 11:05 | With the White House funeral Mass now over, President Johnson speaks with Jackie Kennedy in private. He's changed his tune from when he was trying to move into the White House earlier: "Honey, you stay as long as you want. I have a nice comfortable house and I'm in no hurry." |
| 11/23 11:20 | President Johnson and the First Lady leave the White House for St. John's Episcopal Church a block away. As soon as they arrive, a brief service begins. "O, God," preaches the Reverend Harper, "bless Thy servant Lyndon and all others in authority so they may do Thy will." |
| 11/23 11:27 | Whisked out of the interrogation room, Oswald tells the assembled newsmen that he wants a lawyer: "I would like to contact Mr. Abt, A-B-T, Mr. Abt in New York to defend me." John Abt, chief counsel for the Communist Party USA, is on vacation this weekend in Connecticut. |
| 11/23 11:35 | Returning to his temporary office, President Johnson meets with former President Eisenhower, who warns him not to rely too heavily on Kennedy's appointees. He's particularly concerned about Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who he thinks will try to undercut Johnson. |
| 11/23 11:40 | In the U.K., BBC television airs the first episode of "Doctor Who", about a mysterious man who can travel through time and space in a police callbox. Viewership is low, overshadowed by the ongoing coverage of Kennedy's death. It's doubtful the show will be renewed next year. |
| 11/23 11:45 | Across the street from Dallas police headquarters, Jack Ruby approaches an NBC television truck. Seeing the table of fried chicken meals the crew had ordered for lunch, Ruby takes one of them for himself. |
| 11/23 12:00 | It's unclear if the Miami Hurricanes will host the Florida Gators today, as planned. The president of the University of Miami has received death threats, and now Miami mayor Robert King High says he will bar the gates of the football stadium to stop the game from being played. |
| 11/23 12:01 | Major General Edwin Walker, who resigned from his post in the Army to promote right-wing and segregationist causes, hands a prepared statement to newsmen in Shreveport, Louisiana: "The tragic events of Friday demonstrate the internal threat that can never be underestimated." |
| 11/23 12:05 | From his presidential library in Independence, Missouri, former president Harry S. Truman makes a statement on the assassination. |
| 11/23 12:10 | Police chief Jesse Curry apologizes for his earlier statement that the FBI knew about Oswald beforehand: "I do not know this to be a fact, and I don’t want anybody to get the wrong impression that I am accusing the FBI of not cooperating or of withholding information." |
| 11/23 12:39 | Having just been told that Oswald had once visited the Cuban consulate in Mexico City, President Johnson calls his friend, Wall Street lawyer Edwin Weisl. "This assassin may have a lot more complications than you know about", Johnson says. "It may lay deeper than you think." |
| 11/23 13:00 | President Johnson calls Marie Tippit, the widow of the police officer that died trying to apprehend Oswald. |
| 11/23 13:01 | Doctors at Parkland Hospital have provided an update on the condition of Governor Connally: "His mental condition is clear, he is in control of all his faculties. ... The last X-ray of his chest was good. We are pleased with his improved progress." |
| 11/23 13:10 | At the last minute, the mayor of Miami has relented on his threat to stop today's Florida–Miami game from being played. This longstanding rivalry will go on while so many others in college football are canceled or postponed, but the canoe trophy for the game winner is missing. |
| 11/23 13:15 | Lee Oswald is brought into the visiting room, where his wife and his mother are waiting on the other side of the plate glass. He picks up the telephone connecting to the visitors' side and starts speaking with Marina in Russian. |
| 11/23 13:16 | At Arlington National Cemetery, Jackie Kennedy gives her approval to the burial site chosen by Robert McNamara, nestled on the slope below the historic plantation. The White House can be seen from that spot, after all, peeking out from behind the Lincoln Memorial. |
| 11/23 13:20 | In his first official act as President, Lyndon Johnson issues Proclamation No. 3561, calling for a national day of mourning in honor of President Kennedy on Monday, November 25. President Johnson will read the proclamation in a radio broadcast later today. |
| 11/23 13:35 | President Johnson holds the first meeting of the secretaries of his cabinet – still identical to Kennedy's cabinet. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, preoccupied with planning for his brother's funeral, arrives late and is noticeably aloof. |
| 11/23 13:50 | Searching through Ruth Paine's garage in Irving, Detective Guy Rose pulls two photographs and their negatives out of a cardboard box. They both show Oswald, a radical newspaper in one hand and a rifle resembling the one found at the Book Depository in the other. |
| 11/23 14:00 | George Phenix of CBS News is flying over Dallas. He looks down and sees a line of cars, stretching back over a mile, waiting to pass slowly through Dealey Plaza. |
| 11/23 14:01 | Early this evening in a suburb of Manchester, England, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley offered 12-year-old John Kilbride a ride home. He hasn't been seen since, and is now considered missing. Four months ago, a young friend of Hindley's sister also went missing. |
| 11/23 14:14 | Oswald is brought down for another lineup, this time with the cab driver who claims to have driven him out of downtown and a witness to Tippit's shooting. Both identify Oswald immediately as the man they saw, though he protests that the newspapers have printed his photograph. |
| 11/23 14:15 | Marina Oswald leaves police headquarters after visiting her husband, flanked by reporters and cameras as she carries her two-year-old daughter June in her arms. |
| 11/23 14:45 | Marguerite and Marina Oswald return to the Life magazine hotel suite. The reporters there have arranged for the two to stay at the Executive Inn, near Love Field, for the next few days. |
| 11/23 15:37 | Robert Oswald, who had been denied a visitor pass to meet his brother at police headquarters earlier, is now allowed to talk with Lee separately from his mother and sister-in-law. |
| 11/23 15:51 | In a brief radio address to the nation, President Johnson reads the proclamation he issued earlier this afternoon, establishing November 25 as a national day of mourning for President Kennedy. |
| 11/23 16:15 | Oswald has finally asked for an opportunity to contact a lawyer. He calls an operator in New York City to get John Abt's phone number, but forgets it and has to call the operator again. When he finally dials Abt's number, no one is home. |
| 11/23 16:22 | Unable to call attorney John Abt directly, Lee Oswald phones Ruth Paine and asks her to call Abt for him sometime after 6:00 p.m. As soon as he hangs up, Lee suddenly calls her again and repeats the same request. |
| 11/23 16:40 | The BBC's satirical news show, "That Was The Week That Was", is replaced with a solemn tribute to President Kennedy. The broadcast includes the first performance of "In The Summer of His Years", which has just been quickly written in Kennedy's memory. |
| 11/23 17:00 | Not everyone in the world is in mourning: in Peking, the capital of Communist China, the Worker's Daily newspaper publishes a mocking cartoon, whose caption translates to "Kennedy bites the dust." The Peking government has not officially acknowledged Kennedy's death. |
| 11/23 17:28 | Press Secretary Pierre Salinger has announced that the Kennedy family has chosen to bury the President at Arlington National Cemetery. The funeral and interment will take place in two days. |
| 11/23 17:30 | At the Executive Inn, Marguerite Oswald has just received the food she ordered from room service when she notices Marina tearing up two photos of Lee she's kept hidden in her shoe, then setting them on fire with a match. Marguerite helps her flush what's left down the toilet. |
| 11/23 18:00 | H. Louis Nichols, president of the Dallas Bar Association, is at police headquarters to make sure Oswald isn't deprived of his right to counsel. Oswald refuses Nichols' help and insists on waiting for a response from John Abt. |
| 11/23 18:15 | Judge David Johnston signs a third criminal affidavit against Oswald, charging him with the attempted murder of Governor Connally. Unlike the Tippit and Kennedy charges, there's no rush to arraign Oswald on this one – that will be carried out sometime in the coming week. |
| 11/23 18:24 | Oswald is brought out for another round of interrogation, and this time he immediately calls out to the assembled microphones in the hallway: "I'd like to have them extend to me the basic fundamental hygienic rights – I mean, like a shower." |
| 11/23 18:30 | Back in the interrogation room, police show Oswald the photos of him holding a rifle, recently found in Ruth Paine's garage. He immediately insists the photos are faked, and that his head must have been superimposed on another image. |
| 11/23 19:00 | Police chief Jesse Curry gives another update to the press: "The FBI has just informed us that they have the order letter for the rifle that we have sent to the laboratory. ... It has definitely been established by the FBI that the handwriting is the handwriting of Oswald." |
| 11/23 19:15 | After 45 minutes of fruitless interrogation, Oswald is led back to his cell once again. Reporters, by now aware of the photos of Oswald holding a rifle, ask him if that's the weapon he used. "I have not committed any acts of violence," he replies. |
| 11/23 19:20 | Barnwell Odum, the same FBI agent who tried to interrogate Marina Oswald earlier today, shows up at the Executive Inn. Marina won't come to the door, but all he wants to know this time is whether they recognize a man who was photographed leaving the Soviet embassy in Mexico City. |
| 11/23 20:00 | Lee Oswald calls Ruth Paine at her home in Irving, and is surprised to learn that Marina isn't there. "Tell her she should be at your house," he says before hanging up. |
| 11/23 20:01 | Chief Curry announces that Dallas police are done questioning Oswald for the day, telling the assembled reporters to come back tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. if they want to see him being transferred to the county jail. |
| 11/23 20:30 | President Johnson has now returned to his home in northwest D.C. after his first full day on the job. |
| 11/23 20:31 | In the past 12 hours, the Information Bureau at the New York Daily News has recorded 7,195 calls concerning plans for President Kennedy's funeral, whether various establishments will be open tomorrow, and whether sports events have been canceled or postponed. |
| 11/23 23:00 | Secret Service agents Clint Hill and Paul Landis are leaving the White House now for their respective homes. Both were accompanying the motorcade in Dallas when Kennedy was shot, and neither of them have slept in the past 42 hours. |
| 11/24 00:00 | At the Pago Club on Kinney Avenue, Jack Ruby orders a Coke and then asks the waitress, "Why are you open?" She replies, "Ask my employer", and walks off. |
| 11/24 01:00 | On a tight deadline, Dallas Times Herald reporter Darwin Payne calls Chief Curry at home, asking for confirmation of a rumor that the police have a witness under protective custody who saw Oswald pull the trigger. Curry, half-asleep, can't confirm. |
| 11/24 01:05 | Exhausted by the constant barrage of late-night phone calls, Chief Curry's wife Bea reaches over and unplugs the telephone from the wall so both of them can get at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. |
| 11/24 02:30 | An overnight security guard at the FBI's Dallas office receives an unusual call. "I represent a committee that is neither right nor left-wing," the anonymous caller says, "and tonight, tomorrow morning, or tomorrow night, we are going to kill the man that killed the president." |
| 11/24 04:00 | Journalist Edward L. Kennedy, no relation to the president, is in critical condition after being struck by a car in Monterey, Cal. Kennedy gained notoriety in 1945 when he broke a press embargo to report the German surrender first, for which he was fired by the Associated Press. |
| 11/24 05:40 | The government of Singapore launches its second state-run television network, Channel 8, which will air two and a half hours of news in Chinese and Tamil every evening. The nation's first TV station, Channel 5, went live in February. |
| 11/24 06:15 | After being notified by the FBI of threats against Oswald, Dallas police captain William Frazier tries to call Chief Curry at home to plan an incident-free transfer to the county jail. But a telephone operator tells him that Curry's phone is out of order. |
| 11/24 08:05 | Chief Curry arrives at Dallas police headquarters. Considering the threats made against Oswald, Curry insists that only the most trustworthy and emotionally stable officers on the force should be assigned to transfer him to the county jail today. |
| 11/24 09:00 | In New York City, St. Patrick's Cathedral begins a Solemn High Requiem Mass. By special dispensation of the Vatican, the priests are vested in black instead of the green normally worn on the last Sunday after Pentecost. |
| 11/24 09:30 | Though the previous rounds of interrogation have accomplished little, Dallas police decide to question Oswald one last time before transferring him to the county jail. He continues to deny everything. |
| 11/24 10:19 | Karen Bennett, a performer at one of Jack Ruby's nightclubs under the name "Little Lynn", calls Ruby and asks him to help her afford groceries. He agrees to wire her $25 sometime later today. |
| 11/24 11:00 | Two armored trucks have arrived at Dallas police headquarters, ready to transport Oswald a few blocks over to the county jail under the tightest security. |
| 11/24 11:01 | Parkland Hospital has been warned to prepare for an emergency. The mass of people outside police headquarters is agitated, officials have told the trauma ward, and somebody could be trampled or succumb to the strain and excitement of the day. |
| 11/24 11:02 | In Lawrence, Massachusetts, police discover the body of Sunday school teacher Joann Graff splayed on her bed, a nylon stocking tied around her neck. Graff is believed to be the 10th victim of the mysterious serial killer known only as the "Boston Strangler". |
| 11/24 11:05 | In the basement of Dallas police headquarters, dozens of officers are waiting in formation to protect Oswald as he is brought out to the parking ramp. Captain Orville Jones gives them strict instructions not to let any reporters approach the suspect this time. |
| 11/24 11:10 | In an effort to throw off any possible attempt on Oswald's life, Dallas police have decided at the last minute to transport him in an unmarked car, using the two armored trucks only as a decoy. Detective Jim Leavelle is handcuffed to Oswald to prevent an escape. |
| 11/24 11:17 | At the Western Union office in downtown Dallas, Jack Ruby fills out a $25 money order to Karen Bennett, then leaves the building and heads toward the commotion at police headquarters a block away. |
| 11/24 11:18 | Waiting for Oswald to be led out of the building, three cameramen from WBAP wheel a bulky television camera on a tripod into the basement. It nearly topples over. Through this camera, NBC will carry the transfer of Oswald live nationwide. |
| 11/24 11:19 | Preparing the procession of cars that will take Oswald to the county jail, Lieutenant Rio Pierce drives up the basement's entrance ramp. As the crowd outside parts around him, officers spot a man running down the ramp and into the basement, but no one manages to stop him. |
| 11/24 11:19 | Lee Oswald is led through the third-floor hallway of police headquarters for the last time. Along the short walk to the elevator that will take him to the basement to be transported to jail, he is once again bombarded with questions from reporters. |
| 11/24 11:20 | Seconds before Oswald is to be led through the basement, a crush of reporters overwhelms the protective lines police have formed. TV crews switch on bright floodlights to better film the event, nearly blinding the assembled officers. |
| 11/24 11:20 | In the control room at CBS affiliate KRLD, bureau chief Dan Rather is watching the live feed from police headquarters. As they prepare to bring Oswald out, Rather implores CBS to cut to it, but the network heads in New York are busy covering preparations at the White House. |
| 11/24 11:21 | BREAKING: Lee Harvey Oswald has been shot during the transfer out of Dallas police headquarters. Police immediately recognize the suspect, who is apprehended within seconds, as local nightclub owner Jack Ruby. |
| 11/24 11:22 | Frederick Bieberdorf, the first-aid attendant on duty at police headquarters, runs into the basement. He can't feel a pulse or any sign of life in Oswald, but isn't sure if the chaotic noise of the surroundings are drowning it out. |
| 11/24 11:22 | Jack Ruby is hustled to the elevator to be booked for shooting Oswald upstairs. He's proud of what he's done, telling officers, "I hope I killed the son of a bitch." |
| 11/24 11:23 | In the confusion of the basement, with police taking immediate action, the crowd of reporters starts interviewing each other to determine what just happened, and whether or not Oswald was hit. NBC's Tom Pettit turns to radio reporter Geoff Edwards. |
| 11/24 11:23 | On the fifth floor of police headquarters, Jack Ruby is frisked and stripped down to his underwear. |
| 11/24 11:25 | An ambulance pulls down the ramp into the basement at police headquarters. Oswald is promptly lifted into the back. He will be taken to the nearest hospital, Parkland. |
| 11/24 11:28 | The Oswald family checks out of the Executive Inn, unaware that Lee has just been shot. Two Secret Service agents are waiting for them outside, preparing to take them to an in-law's house in the country for their safety. |
| 11/24 11:30 | The ambulance carrying Lee Oswald pulls up at the emergency entrance of Parkland Hospital. Oswald is rushed into Trauma Room 2, so as to avoid treating him in the same room where Kennedy died two days earlier. |
| 11/24 11:31 | The Secret Service agents inform Robert Oswald that his brother Lee has been shot. He decides that he will go to Parkland alone, and asks the agents not to tell his mother about the shooting so she'll agree to be driven out of town with Marina. |
| 11/24 11:32 | Most of the Parkland doctors and nurses who are now beginning to work on Lee Oswald are the same that treated Kennedy on Friday. Dr. Malcolm Perry, who massaged the President's heart, now feels a bullet just under Oswald's skin. |
| 11/24 11:34 | Jackie Kennedy, her two children, and Bobby enter the East Room of the White House for a brief, open-casket private viewing before President Kennedy's body is taken to lie in state. |
| 11/24 11:40 | All unauthorized personnel have been ordered to leave the emergency area at Parkland. Bill Stinson, assistant to Governor Connally, is helping to clear the area when he finds Bill Burrus, a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, hiding behind a curtain in Trauma Room 1. |
| 11/24 11:42 | At Parkland, Oswald is wheeled into an elevator and taken up to an operating theater on the second floor. The bullet ruptured multiple of Oswald's arteries and he's losing blood fast. Only an intensive surgery could possibly save his life now. |
| 11/24 11:46 | In the East Room, preparing for the procession to the Capitol, Robert F. Kennedy closes his brother's casket for the last time. |
| 11/24 11:50 | Clint Hill is walking through the White House when he hears a household staffer tell a few others, "That bastard deserved to die." Hill is furious until the staffers explain that they're not talking about the President – Oswald has just been shot. |
| 11/24 12:00 | The procession from the White House to the Capitol has begun. Of the six horses pulling the hearse carriage, three have no rider, symbolizing the loss of a leader. |
| 11/24 12:30 | Robert Oswald arrives at Parkland Hospital. He is confronted by two Secret Service agents who refuse to let him enter the building. |
| 11/24 12:45 | Surgeons have now successfully stemmed the flow of blood from Oswald's numerous internal injuries, a task which seemed nearly impossible when he was wheeled in. But the much more difficult challenge of repairing all this damage still lies ahead. |
| 11/24 12:50 | The funeral procession has completed the 1-1/2 mile distance from the White House. President Kennedy's casket is now being carried to the center of the Capitol rotunda to lie in state. |
| 11/24 12:51 | The doctors working on Oswald are preparing to start repairing his aorta when suddenly, his heart gives out. Just as he did for Kennedy, Dr. Perry dives in and begins massaging Oswald's heart. |
| 11/24 13:00 | Three police detectives have arrived at Jack Ruby's apartment, but the search warrant they're carrying gives the wrong apartment number. The complex manager knows where Ruby lives, but refuses to let police search until they come back with a corrected warrant. |
| 11/24 13:05 | Manually massaging Oswald's heart has done nothing to restore his pulse, and neither has the defibrillator. As a last resort, doctors are installing a pacemaker. |
| 11/24 13:07 | The pacemaker sewed into Oswald's heart can only elicit a slight twitch in his muscles – no heartbeat. Lee Harvey Oswald is pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital at 1:07 p.m., two days and a couple of minutes after John Fitzgerald Kennedy was. |
| 11/24 13:10 | Nellie Connally notices a commotion at Parkland, and she asks a Texas Ranger in the hall what's happening. "Lee Harvey Oswald was just killed", he replies. Governor Connally, who regained full consciousness this morning, hears this with confusion: he has no idea who Oswald is. |
| 11/24 13:16 | Dr. Tom Shires steps into the room at Parkland where members of the press have been corralled. He informs them that Lee Oswald has died and begins to answer questions. |
| 11/24 13:18 | Robert Oswald, waiting in an office at Parkland Hospital, is told of his brother's death. Parkland staff made no effort to notify the next of kin before announcing Lee's death, and now his brother is finding out behind the rest of the country. |
| 11/24 13:20 | The Secret Service agents driving Marguerite and Marina Oswald out of town stop in Irving to pick up supplies for the babies. The agents decide now is the time to tell them that Lee has been shot, and moments later the word that he is dead comes over their two-way radio. |
| 11/24 13:29 | At police headquarters, Chief Curry informs the assembled press that Oswald is dead. With the news traveling around the world, the reporters in the hallway, who now realize that they just broadcast the first live murder in television history, are practically the last to know. |
| 11/24 13:45 | Teodor Maraszczak of Chicago has been found dead. His body was discovered in a workshop behind his home with a pistol lying at his side. Last night, Maraszczak told his wife: "The President got shot in the head. I'm going to shoot myself in the head." |
| 11/24 13:55 | President Johnson meets with Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. ambassador to South Viet Nam, and says he plans to step up Kennedy's commitments there. "I am not going to lose Viet Nam", Johnson says. "I am not going to be the President who saw Southeast Asia go the way China went." |
| 11/24 14:00 | The Capitol rotunda is now open to the public, allowing ordinary citizens to file through the building and pay their respects to the President. |
| 11/24 14:01 | A thorough search of Jack Ruby's apartment has turned up, in the opinion of the detectives, nothing of evidentiary value. They leave the building empty-handed. |
| 11/24 14:02 | Dallas mayor Earle Cabell is preparing to leave Love Field on a Braniff Airways flight to Washington for Kennedy's funeral, when an anonymous person calls the mayor's office and says a bomb is on board the plane. |
| 11/24 14:25 | The notion of taking the Oswald family out of town for their protection has disappeared now, and the Secret Service brings Marguerite and Marina to the Parkland morgue to view Lee's body. |
| 11/24 14:30 | In the West Sitting Room of the White House, Jackie Kennedy speaks up with an idea for her husband's grave: it should have an eternal flame, like the one she'd once seen at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Officials now have less than 24 hours to design and install one from scratch. |
| 11/24 14:35 | In the Parkland morgue, Marina Oswald steps forward and suddenly pries open the eyelids of her dead husband Lee. Then she tries to lift the sheet away from his body to see the bullet wound, but someone grabs her arm and stops her. |
| 11/24 14:40 | Marina and Marguerite are reunited with Robert Oswald in an office at Parkland. Marguerite begins to insist to anyone who will listen that her son Lee should be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. |
| 11/24 14:45 | Robert Oswald has been waiting to view his brother's body for over an hour. Finally, he's told that the medical examiner has already begun photographing the body and will not allow any more family members into the room. |
| 11/24 15:00 | Presidential advisor Dick Goodwin is determined now to make Jackie's idea for an eternal flame a reality. When an Army officer says it can't be done, Goodwin replies: "If you can design an atomic bomb, you can put a little flame on the side of that hill." |
| 11/24 15:15 | Dallas police haul their suspect through a hallway lined with reporters once again. But this time, it's not Lee Harvey Oswald, it's the man who killed Oswald. And Jack Ruby is not given the chance to take questions from the press. |
| 11/24 15:30 | At Love Field, a Braniff Airways plane to Washington has been delayed after a bomb threat was called in. Police are now searching the plane's luggage, but have found nothing suspicious. |
| 11/24 15:45 | At the offices of Suburban Propane in Rockville, Maryland, a repairman gets a call from an Army engineer at Fort Myer. The repairman agrees to supply whatever is needed to set up an eternal flame at President Kennedy's grave. |
| 11/24 15:55 | After being delayed by a bomb threat, the Braniff flight from Dallas to Washington is taking off now. Dallas mayor Earle Cabell and Judge Sarah Hughes have decided to take a different flight to attend the President's funeral, but astronaut John Glenn decided to remain aboard. |
| 11/24 16:00 | After an anemic match between the New York Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals, where neither the fans nor the players seemed to care about the game, a reporter asks NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle why he chose not to cancel it: "Was it the money?" |
| 11/24 17:00 | Hundreds of thousands of people are now waiting to walk past the President's flag-draped casket in the Capitol rotunda. Traffic on D.C. streets is backed up with people trying to get in, and the jams reach as far away as Baltimore, 30 miles from Washington. |
| 11/24 17:01 | The Secret Service bring the Oswalds to the Inn of the Six Flags, a motel that's nearly deserted during the off-season of the nearby theme park. The inn has become the Secret Service's makeshift headquarters, so nowhere would be safer for them to spend the next few days. |
| 11/24 19:30 | Leonard Bernstein, America's most celebrated conductor, leads the New York Philharmonic in a televised performance of Mahler's "Resurrection Symphony" in memory of the late president. |
| 11/24 20:00 | West Berlin mayor Willi Brandt announces that Rudolph-Wilde-Platz, the square where Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech five months ago, will be renamed "John-F.-Kennedy-Platz", making it one of the first landmarks in the world to be named for the deceased president. |
| 11/24 20:30 | Jackie Kennedy has invited her friend, shipbuilding tycoon Aristotle Onassis, to family dinner in the White House tonight. The Kennedys have never liked Onassis, and now Bobby is needling him about his wealth, jokingly trying to persuade him to give half of it away to the poor. |
| 11/24 21:25 | Aiming to prevent speculation on whether Oswald was the real assassin, DA Henry Wade gives an impromptu press conference where he tries to recall the evidence gathered against Oswald from memory. "I've sent people to the electric chair on less," he says. |
| 11/24 21:30 | Robert Oswald is going through the Yellow Pages, trying to find a minister willing to officiate at Lee's funeral. He's coming up empty-handed. One minister he calls says, "We can't go along with what you have in mind. Your brother was a sinner." |
| 11/24 21:45 | Robert Oswald calls Parkland Hospital and says one word: "Malcolm". The Secret Service, Dallas police, and the hospital have arranged for this word to send a signal, meaning that it's time for Parkland to release Lee's body from the morgue for burial. |
| 11/24 21:56 | Irish president Éamon de Valera is now passing by Kennedy's casket at the Capitol. Though De Valera is 81 years old and virtually blind, he insisted on traveling to Washington. |
| 11/24 23:00 | The line to view Kennedy's casket in the Capitol rotunda still stretches for miles. Police in Washington, D.C. have started to warn those toward the back of the line that they most likely won't get inside before the viewing ends at 9:00 a.m. |
| 11/24 23:01 | Directors at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center assemble to design a questionnaire for a flash survey of how Americans learned of and responded to the assassination. It will be the first comprehensive study of a widespread reaction to breaking news. |
| 11/24 23:20 | Assembled in just a few hours, the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame is now being tested for the first time by Army engineer Bernard Carroll. It works perfectly, and there should be no problems when Jackie Kennedy lights it herself tomorrow. |
| 11/24 23:45 | Lt. Sam Bird is overseeing a test on the steps at Arlington. To make sure the President's extremely heavy casket is carried down without incident, he's filled an empty casket with sandbags and is having guardsmen carry it down, while Bird and another guard sit on top of it. |
| 11/25 01:00 | The Commander of the Military District of Washington, Major General Philip C. Wehle, has just finished an hours-long meeting, giving all relevant officials their final instructions for tomorrow's state funeral. |
| 11/25 02:07 | "Jersey Joe" Walcott, the former heavyweight champion of the world, is now filing past the casket in the Capitol rotunda. Walcott told reporters he was willing to wait in line for nine hours with other members of the public to visit Kennedy because "he was a great man." |
| 11/25 02:15 | The outdoor temperature in Washington, D.C. tonight has officially dipped to the freezing point. Thousands of people remain undeterred in their long wait to view Kennedy's casket. |
| 11/25 05:00 | Las Vegas casinos have shut down their all-hours gambling for the first time since President Roosevelt died in 1945. Aside from a few small independent gambling houses which will close for only a few hours, all of the city's casinos will remain closed until midnight. |
| 11/25 06:30 | A crowd has already begun to gather on the hillside overlooking the site where President Kennedy will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Since the Memorial Bridge across the Potomac River is closed, most have walked for miles to get here. |
| 11/25 07:00 | At the White House, the Kennedy family holds a muted celebration for the third birthday of John F. Kennedy, Jr. His older sister Caroline gives him the present of a toy helicopter. |
| 11/25 07:30 | 30 minutes before access to the Capitol rotunda is to close, people have started trying to cut ahead in line. Deputy police chief Loraine Johnson closes the line early and tells the remaining 5,000 to disperse, but most are staying to watch the casket come down the Capitol steps. |
| 11/25 08:00 | The last in a line of 250,000 mourners have now filed through the Capitol rotunda to view President Kennedy's casket. Leaving the building now are a group of nuns who were standing in line for nearly eight hours. |
| 11/25 09:00 | Jean Campbell, Washington correspondent to the London Evening Standard: "Jacqueline Kennedy has given the American people from this day on one thing they have always lacked – majesty." |
| 11/25 09:30 | President Johnson calls J. Edgar Hoover, complaining that officials are pushing him to set up an investigative commission on the assassination now that Oswald will never go to trial: "We can't be checking up on every shooting scrape in the country." |
| 11/25 09:38 | Jackie Kennedy, accompanied by her husband's brothers Robert and Ted, and five cars filled with other members of the Kennedy family have now arrived at the Capitol. |
| 11/25 09:59 | President Kennedy's casket is carried down the Capitol steps and placed on a caisson. It will now proceed to St. Matthew's Cathedral, a few blocks from the White House, for the funeral. |
| 11/25 10:00 | In the Manhattan boardroom of Time, Inc., Zapruder's film is screened for executives. Appalled by its graphic nature, they ask Richard Stolley to acquire the exhibition rights – not to profit off of the film, but to ensure that it will never been shown to the public in full. |
| 11/25 10:01 | North America gets another taste of Beatlemania today, as "With the Beatles" becomes the first of their records to get a Canadian release. EMI's U.S. subsidiary, Capitol Records, so far has shown no interest in releasing the group's music in America. |
| 11/25 10:30 | Learning that the Washington Post plans to publish an editorial tomorrow calling for a presidential commission investigating the assassination, the FBI is urging them not to print it. Post editor Russ Wiggins refuses to back down. |
| 11/25 10:35 | The gun carriage bearing the President's casket arrives at the White House. The funeral march to St. Matthew's Cathedral will now begin, with the casket trailed on foot by Jackie Kennedy, President Johnson, and hundreds of dignitaries both foreign and domestic. |
| 11/25 10:49 | The bell of historic Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn has begun 11 minutes of tolling to mark the beginning of Kennedy's funeral. Installed in 1796, the bell has tolled for the death of every President, starting with George Washington. |
| 11/25 11:00 | At anchor in Bayonne, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt begins firing her deck guns. This salute will be held once a minute for the next 21 minutes. |
| 11/25 11:01 | The telegraph wires of the Western Union and the Radio Corporation of America, across the nation, have fallen silent. Railroad trains are stopped in their tracks. In New York City, all ground operations at Idlewild Airport have come to a halt. |
| 11/25 11:10 | Richard Cardinal Cushing, Catholic archbishop of Boston and a lifelong friend of President Kennedy and his family, begins to recite the Pontifical Requiem Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral. |
| 11/25 11:15 | Without fanfare, Dallas police slip Jack Ruby out of their headquarters and into a car that will take him to the county jail. Shaking with fear that he might be the next one shot, Ruby runs into the car and hides himself against the floor. |
| 11/25 11:30 | Ordinary life on American streets has been brought to an almost complete standstill. Here, in York, Pennsylvania, not a thing is moving on Market Street. |
| 11/25 12:00 | At the First Baptist Church of Brattleboro, Vermont, citizens of many faiths participate in the prayers from the pulpit. About 600 persons are thronging the church. |
| 11/25 12:01 | Here is the scene at this hour in downtown Tampa, Florida, where crowds flocked to see a vital, vibrant President Kennedy speak one week ago today. Christmas decorations hang gaily over Franklin Street, but no one is passing below. |
| 11/25 12:10 | On the steps of St. Matthew's Cathedral, three-year-old John F. Kennedy, Jr. salutes his father's casket, which is now being readied for the final procession to Arlington National Cemetery. |
| 11/25 13:30 | After almost every cemetery in the area turned them down, Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth agrees to allow the Oswalds to bury Lee there. The brief funeral service will be held later today. |
| 11/25 13:54 | Above Arlington National Cemetery, 50 F-105 fighter jets fly overhead in three formations. They are followed by Air Force One, which dips its wings in salute. |
| 11/25 14:00 | The funeral of Officer J.D. Tippit has begun at Beckley Hills Baptist Church in Dallas. The 450-seat church is full, while over a thousand more people stand outside. |
| 11/25 14:01 | E Street in downtown San Bernardino, California, blocked to vehicle traffic by police, has been designated as a "Street of Mourning". Lyndon Johnson worked as an elevator operator in a building here on E Street as a young man in 1925. |
| 11/25 14:02 | At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, members of the 17th Bombardment Wing of the Strategic Air Command – ready at a moment's notice in their flight suits to take to the sky if needed – are watching the funeral on television. |
| 11/25 14:15 | Jackie Kennedy is handed a burning taper. She bends down and lights the Eternal Flame. |
| 11/25 14:30 | The Brent Spence Bridge opens, connecting Cincinnati, Ohio to Covington, Ky. with a modern Interstate Highway. Grand opening ceremonies were cancelled due to the national mourning. Spence, who retired from Congress in January, asks for the bridge to be named for Kennedy instead. |
| 11/25 14:32 | John F. Kennedy's casket is now slowly being lowered into the earth. |
| 11/25 14:35 | At Arlington National Cemetery, the television cameras are turned off, and workers begin filling Kennedy's grave with dirt in private. Before the day is over, the burial plot will be made presentable for the thousands of visitors yet to come. |
| 11/25 15:00 | Life magazine's Richard Stolley is back at the office of Abraham Zapruder. The magazine already has the rights to print frames from Zapruder's film of the assassination, but Stolley is here to negotiate for the rights to exhibit the film as a motion picture as well. |
| 11/25 15:05 | On the University of Wisconsin campus, 10,000 students, faculty, and local residents gather on Bascom Hill for a tribute to President Kennedy. A speech written by Wisconsin governor John W. Reynolds, who is in Washington for the funeral, will be read. |
| 11/25 16:00 | Abraham Zapruder agrees to sell all rights to his assassination film to Life magazine for $150,000. Concerned that his making money off the President's death might provoke anti-Jewish sentiment in Dallas, he decides to give the first $25,000 to the widow of Officer Tippit. |
| 11/25 16:02 | At Rose Hill Cemetery, the Oswald family has not yet arrived for the 4:00 funeral service. Not willing to wait, the cemetery has the coffin carried from the chapel to the gravesite. With no one else around, six reporters serve as Lee's pallbearers. |
| 11/25 16:05 | The Oswalds arrive at the Rose Hill Cemetery chapel and are confused to find that Lee's coffin is already gone. They are beckoned down to the grave, and a brief funeral service begins. |
| 11/25 16:25 | Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin is lowered into the ground. For the time being, the grave will be placed under a round-the-clock watch by Fort Worth police, hoping to prevent anyone from desecrating the site. |
| 11/25 16:30 | At the Virginia Military Institute, a 50-gun salute is fired. |
| 11/25 17:00 | At the Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, Reginald and Kathleen Evans welcome their 11th child. John Kennedy Evans shares his name with the deceased President and his birthday with John F. Kennedy, Jr. |
| 11/25 18:00 | On CBS television, Eric Sevareid delivers a special report, "Presidents and Assassins", recounting the long history of presidential assassinations and attempted assassinations in America. |
| 11/25 18:01 | The Kennedy family gathers in the White House for a longer celebration of John Jr.'s third birthday. The children are being treated to ice cream, while the adults start to sing "Heart of My Heart" together. |
| 11/25 18:20 | President Johnson is now meeting with French president Charles de Gaulle at the State Department building. De Gaulle has been the subject of two assassination attempts and has received further death threats in the past few days, but he was determined to attend Kennedy's funeral. |
| 11/25 19:00 | A special hour-long edition of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite begins now. |
| 11/25 19:05 | Its owner is being held in jail without bond right now, but the Carousel Club in Dallas is swinging this evening. Some who knew Jack Ruby are now speculating that he killed Oswald out of anger that the mourning period was causing him to lose business. |
| 11/25 19:30 | The United Jewish Appeal of New York holds its annual "Night of Stars" at Madison Square Garden. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was supposed to deliver the address here tonight. Now the event, like so many others this week, will serve as a memorial to President Kennedy. |
| 11/25 19:32 | President Johnson has returned to his office. He is now meeting with the governors of 38 states and three U.S. territories, all of whom attended the funeral today. |
| 11/25 20:20 | President Johnson calls Martin Luther King, Jr. to thank him for his statement of condolences on Kennedy's death. He promises that he will push Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act. |
| 11/25 20:30 | John Koblas, a 15-year-old boy who had never been outside of his home state of Minnesota before, has just landed at home after an impromptu, unaccompanied trip to D.C. to view Kennedy's casket. "All of a sudden, I got the urge to go", he says. He left without telling his mother. |
| 11/25 21:00 | In Lyndon Johnson's place, the address at Madison Square Garden is being given by conductor Leonard Bernstein. "This will be our reply to violence," he says: "to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly, than ever before." |
| 11/25 21:45 | President Johnson is leaving his desk at the Executive Office Building for the final time. Tomorrow morning at 8:00, he will begin working out of the Oval Office. |
| 11/25 22:53 | Jackie and Bobby Kennedy return to Arlington National Cemetery, the first to visit John F. Kennedy's grave since the funeral concluded. Jackie kneels down to pray, then lays a spray of lilies on her husband's grave. |
| 11/25 23:08 | Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy has left Arlington National Cemetery, a few minutes past midnight. She will be moving out of the White House in the coming days with her children, her future now entirely uncertain. |
| 11/26 00:17 | NBC television signs off the air, after over 70 hours of coverage of the assassination and the funeral interrupted only by closedowns at night. Regularly-scheduled programming will resume in the morning. |