President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in 1963  - NY Daily News
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in 1963 
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in 1963
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
President John F. Kennedy slumps down in the back seat of a car after being fatally shot in Dallas in this Nov. 22, 1963 photo. 
(JAMES W. IKE ALTGENS/AP)
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, November 21, 2015, 12:00 PM
(Originally published by the Daily News on November 23, 1963. This story was written by Paul Healy.)
DALLAS, TEX., Nov. 22 - President Kennedy was mortally wounded by a rifle bullet at 12:31 P.M. (1:31 P.M. New York time) today as he rode in an open convertible limousine leading a motorcade through the streets of Dallas. He died in Parkland Hospital 29 minutes later. Gov. John Connally of Texas was gravely wounded by the same assassin while seated directly in front of the President.
Seized soon after as the suspected slayer was a Soviet-loving young Texan, Lee Harvey Oswald of Fort Worth. Police think he may have fired the fatal round from the fifth floor of a building which the motorcade was passing.
AMERICANS ARE IN SHOCK AFTER JFK IS ASSASSINATED
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, riding two cars behind, was unscathed, but in severe shock. He was admitted to the same hospital as the President and the Governor a few minutes after the shooting. But Johnson was soon released.
Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States at 2:39 P.M. (3:39 P.M. New York time) in the forward compartment of the Presidential plane at the airport. The new President and the body of the assassinated President were then flown to Washington.
An Enthusiastic Welcome
JFK assassinated.
(New York Daily News)
Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline had landed at Love Field, Dallas, in bright sunny weather with the 46-year-old Governor and his wife and the Johnsons just over two hours before and had received an enthusiastic ovation from 250,000 Texans in this Republican city.
The Kennedy's and the Connallys were discussing the warmth of the welcome when the bullet entered Kennedy's head.
A half hour later, the nation's first Catholic President was dead. The last rites were administered in the hospital by the Rev. Oscar Huber, pastor of nearby Holy Trinity Church.
The sudden death of Kennedy, 46, the nation's youngest elected President, stunned the nation.
The assassination left the citizens of Dallas in shock. They had just begun to congratulate themselves on giving a dignified, friendly reception to the President, particularly after the humiliation of the Adlai Stevenson incident just last month. On Oct. 24, Stevenson, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was spat upon and struck with a picket sign here.
All taken by Surprise
The swiftness of the attack caught Secret Servicemen and motorcycle outriders by surprise. They quickly unlimbered automatic rifles and pistols, but it was too late, Kennedy was dying.
US President John F. Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy deplane from Air Force One at Love Field, Dallas, Texas, USA. 
(CECIL STOUGHTON/WHITE HOUSE/HANDOUT/EPA)
Mrs. Kennedy cradled her husband's bloodsoaked head in her arms as the limousine rushed to Parkland Hospital. She had screamed in horror, "Oh, no!" as the shots rang out and he slumped down, but she did not give way to hysteria. She repeated unbelievingly, again and again, "Oh, no!"
Even as the car arrived at the hospital, a hurry-up call was sent out for blood and for top specialists. But the President died without regaining consciousness.
Dr. Malcolm Perry, 34, later reported: "There was an entrance wound below his Adam's apple. There was another wound in the back of his head." Both wounds, some of the specialists explained, could have been caused by a single bullet.
Dr. Perry said medical help was immediately available, "but at this point the President's condition was critical and moribund."
Mrs. Kennedy was spattered with blood from her husband's wound.
Mrs. Connally was drenched with blood. She clutched her husband, lying on the floorboard as he slumped from his jump seat.
A Connally assistant, Bill Stinson, said he talked to the Governor in the hospital operating room where Connally was undergoing emergency treatment.
Hands reach out to greet President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy upon their arrival at the airport in Dallas, Texas, in this Nov. 22, 1963 photo. 
(AP)
Stinson asked Connally how it happened and the Governor replied: "I don't know, I guess from the back. They got the President, too."
Governor Conscious
Doctors said Connally "seems to have been struck by just one bullet, which entered the back of his chest and moved outward, taking out and fragmenting a portion of a rib. The bullet emerged from his chest and struck his wrist and thigh. The thigh wound is trivial."
Connally later was reported fully conscious and responding to questions. He was described as being in satisfactory condition.
In a four-hour operation surgeons removed the shattered rib and mended a damaged lung. They said that if he had not turned after the first shot, the slug would probably have pierced his heart.
He gasped to an aid, right after being wounded: "Take care of Nellie" (his wife).
Wife Recalls Scene
President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, arrive at Love Field airport in Dallas, as a television camera, above, follows them. 
(AP)
Mrs. Connally said later that when the firing broke out "Jackie grabbed the President and I grabbed John and we both ducked down in the car."
Connally's wife was given a room next to his. Their oldest son, John, 17, also was at the hospital. Two younger children stayed at the Governor's mansion in Austin.
Julian A. Read, aid to the Governor, told newsmen that "Mrs. Connally said her husband and the President and the two wives had just been commenting on what a friendly reception the President had received in Dallas.
Connally Turned
"She said she observed: 'You can't say Dallas wasn't friendly to you today.' She said it was then the President was struck by the bullet. She said she saw her husband turn from the jump seat toward Kennedy, then the other two shots struck him."
"She said the next thing she heard was the Secret Service man in the front seat grabbing the radiotelephone under the dashboard and saying: 'Let's get the President out of here.'"
The doctors opened Kennedy's throat to relieve breathing and administered blood and fluids intravenously. It did no good. Nor did oxygen.
President John F. Kennedy is seen riding in motorcade approximately one minute before he was shot in Dallas, Texas, in this Nov. 22, 1963 photo.
(AP)
Robert Clark, radio-TV reporter, who was 75 yards back of the President's car, said: "When we got to the hospital, I ran up to the side of the car. The President was lying on his back, Mrs. Kennedy cradling his head. She was not crying.
"One Hand Over His Head"
"The thing that struck me was that he was completely motionless, with one hand over his head. It took a minute and a half before the stretchers came out. During this time, the Vice President walked into the hospital holding his side. Mrs. Kennedy helped lift her stricken husband aboard the stretcher.
"Connally was left unattended at this time. He was holding his chest. He was conscious. Mrs. Connally was cradling his head. There was blood on the President's head."
The three shots rang out as the Presidential motorcade was rounding a slight curve where there is a triple overpass. By this time, the motorcade was in a more industrialized area and the huge crowds had thinned out.
What Yarborough Saw
Sen. Ralph Yarborough (D-Tex.), who was riding with Vice President Johnson two cars behind the Kennedy limousine, with a Secret Service car in between, told newsmen later in a voice choked with sobs:
President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline are shown riding in a motorcade moments before the president was fatally shot in 1963.
(AP)
"It is too horrible to describe. We did not see them shot, but we knew immediately they were.
"I saw a Secret Service man in the car beating his fists on the back as they drove off, in frustration, anger and despair."
Newsmen Heard Shots
The press bus in which I was riding was farther back. We also heard the shots as the motorcade ahead of us was just rounding a curve.
Then the Presidential limousine left the motorcade at furious speed. We found later that it was bound for Parkland Memorial Hospital, three miles away - five minutes at fast city speed.
Our press bus did not stop, but proceeded to the Trade Mart Building, where the President was to have been guest at a luncheon given in his honor by three Dallas civic organizations.
2 Boys Witnessed It
The presidential limousine carrying President Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, as well as Texas Gov. John Connally and his wife, is followed by secret servicemen on running boards, in this Nov. 22, 1963 photo in Dallas, Texas. 
(AP)
Two 17-year-old boys sitting atop a signboard, waiting to take pictures of the motorcade, witnessed the shooting. They were Mike Cargile and Charles Hopkins.
Cargile said that when they looked at the car, right after the shots rang out, they saw Mrs. Kennedy lying across the President on the floorboards and a Secret Service man shielding them both with his body.
Connally, they said, was lying slumped in the jump seat, his wife kneeling next to him, trying to tend him.
Charles Brehm, 38, who was standing five yards away from the car, reported: "He (Kennedy) was waving as the first shot hit him - and then that awful look crossed his face."
Later Assistant Presidential Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff hustled newsmen into a hospital classroom, mounted the lectern and read in a choked voice:
"President John F. Kennedy died at approximately 1 P.M. here in Dallas. He died of a gunshot wound in the brain. I have no other details regarding the assassination of the President."
He said in reply to a question: "No, he did not regain consciousness."
The President had arrived in Texas yesterday morning for a two-day, five-city swing which had been billed as "nonpolitical," except for a fund-raising dinner at $100 a plate which had been scheduled for Austin, the capital, tonight.
The President spoke in San Antonio at noon yesterday and at Houston last night when Mrs. Kennedy also addressed an assemblage in Spanish.
Friends said that her first thought following her husband's death was for her children, Caroline, 6, and John Jr., 3 next week. A third child, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, died in August after less than two days of life.
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