The JFK assassination is one of the most talked about events in American history.
Here are ten facts about the JFK Assassination:
1. JFK was shot while riding in an open-topped car called a convertible on November 22, 1963, just two days after his 46th birthday.
2. The shots were fired from a building called the Texas School Book Depository.
3. A man named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the shooting, but he claimed he was innocent and said someone else did it. Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby while in police custody two days after Kennedy’s assassination. Ruby claimed he shot Oswald to spare Jackie Kennedy further grief.
4. The Warren Commission was set up to investigate the assassination and they concluded that Oswald acted alone. Many people do not believe this conclusion. In 1979, the U.S House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that there were likely multiple shooters involved in JFK’s death, though they were unable to determine conclusively who those shooters were or what their motives might have been. Despite these findings, the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald acted alone remains official US government policy.
5. Many people don’t believe that Oswald acted alone and there are many theories about who else may have been involved. There have been numerous theories proposed as to who else may have been involved in JFK’s death, including the CIA, Fidel Castro and organised crime figures such as Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante Jr. Some conspiracy theorists believe that there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll where Kennedy was assassinated.
6. JFK’s wife Jackie Kennedy was sitting next to him in the car when he was shot and she famously crawled out onto the trunk of the car to try to help him.
7. JFK’s funeral was held at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and his body was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
8. After JFK’s death, his brother Bobby Kennedy became a senator and then ran for president, but he too was assassinated during his campaign.
9. JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy grew up to be a lawyer and author.
10. In 2017 , President Donald Trump released some previously classified documents related to the assassination, which reignited public interest in the case.
