The assassination of John F. Kennedy

At 12:31 Dallas time, several gunshots hit the US president in the heart and in the head — in front of running cameras. His wife, Jackie Kennedy, was with him at the time, as was his host, the governor of Texas, John Connally, with his wife Nellie. Connally, too, was seriously wounded. It is still not known how many shots were fired or in what order they were fired.

It was a sunny Friday morning when the US president and the first lady arrived at the airport in Dallas. It was the second day of Kennedy's election trail in the conservative state of Texas. JFK himself suggested opening the top of the limousine for the motorcade through the city.

An hour after his arrival, the 35th president of the United States was hit by gunshots on Dealey Plaza. When he arrived at the Parkland Memorial Hospital, his heart was still beating, but the bullet that had pierced his head made any attempt to save him impossible. Kennedy died at the age of 46.

When Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president on board Air Force One, Jackie Kennedy was right next to him. Kennedy's coffin was also on board at the time, since his body was returned to Washington for a post-mortem. Four days later, Johnson appointed a commission to examine the assassination. The results released by the Warren Commission have remained disputed, however.

The shots fired at the president had apparently come from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. The gun belonged to Lee Harvey Oswald, who was originally arrested as a suspect in the murder of a policeman an hour and a half after the assassination. Only in the course of Oswald's interrogation did police begin suspecting him of JFK's murder as well. Oswald denied both murders.

On November 24, a camera crew from a national TV station was filming Oswald's transfer to another prison when night club owner Jack Ruby appeared in front of the suspected assassin and took him down with a single gunshot. Millions of people witnessed the murder on screen. Oswald, too, was brought to the Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he then died.

When the president was buried on November 25 at Arlington National Cemetery, millions of people lined the roads to accompany JFK on his final journey. The memorial service became an international media event.

After JFK's death, Jackie mourned her husband, while a nation mourned a politician who had inspired so many. After the memorial service in St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, Kennedy's two brothers and his veiled widow accompanied the president's coffin to his final resting place. Five years later, Robert Kennedy was also the victim of an assassination.

Germany, too, was shaken by John F. Kennedy's death. Especially in West Berlin, JFK had become an idol after his legendary declaration of "Ich bin ein Berliner" during a speech in August 1963, in which he expressed his solidarity with the divided city. After JFK's death, thousands of people expressed their sorrow by writing in condolence books or by laying flowers or wreaths at the Berlin Wall.

The peak of Cold War hostilities came during Kennedy's term as Democratic president from 1961-63. Those years witnessed the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam war. A young, charismatic president, for many "Jack" — as JFK was often known — embodied a new age for the United States. His assassination was a terrible blow to US consciousness.