Sixty-one years ago, on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in a shocking tragedy that still echoes.
The JFK assassination sent the nation into mourning and shook it to its core, as Americans searched for answers. Hundreds of books have been written on it along with multiple films and documentaries, with bits and pieces of information continuing to emerge to this day.
It even figured in the 2024 presidential campaign. President-elect Donald Trump, himself a victim of an assassination attempt, promised to declassify all government records about the Kennedy assassination, according to the Associated Press.
President John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963) and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy ride with Texas Governor John Connally and others in an open car motorcade shortly before the president was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963.
Kennedy’s death was one of the first truly mass-media events, with the entire nation watching minute-by-minute television coverage on the day it happened and the days that followed, catching all of America up in the horror in a way that hadn’t been possible in the past.
In 1950 only 9% of American households owned television sets. By 1960 that number had reached 90%, according to the Library of Congress.
The immediacy of the images is captivating to this day. In September, a 10-second clip of Kennedy’s motorcade speeding down a Dallas freeway towards Parkland Hospital after he was fatally wounded was uncovered. The home movie, on 8 mm color film, was auctioned off for $137,500 on September 28.
Although it might seem like a shocking find decades after the assassination, experts say the find isn’t necessarily surprising.
Copies of magazines and newspapers, printed at the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, were among many items on display at a lecture on the topic at the North Haledon Public Library in New Jersey on Nov. 19, 2024.
“These images, these films and photographs, a lot of times they are still out there. They are still being discovered or rediscovered in attics or garages,” Stephen Fagin, curator at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, told CBS News. The museum is located inside the old Texas Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald was positioned to shoot Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
The event and the era are still captivating, as evidenced by the many events being held around the country to mark the occasion. They range from a presentation of materials and film at a small New Jersey library to an overview of more than 16,000 pages of sworn testimony, exhibits and FBI investigatory reports by the Columbus Dispatch.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis greet supporters at Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas in this photo taken on November 22, 1963; the day of his assassination. The Confederate and Texas flags wave in the background.
Many colleges have offered classes on the assassination over the years. At Oakland Community College in Auburn Hills, Michigan, “Topics in History: The JFK Assassination” has been a staple for more than three decades. The most recent class began September 19.
Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President John F. Kennedy assassinated 61 years ago on Friday
