By Diana Sanchez
Who was John F. Kennedy?
John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Massachusetts. His parents, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy, birthed him into a rich family, in which he had eight siblings: three brothers and five sisters. He was the second oldest in the family.
John F. Kennedy was elected as president, in 1960, but didn’t officially start his term until January 1961. When he did start, he became the 35th president of the United States of America. Kennedy was president during World War II and played a part of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs invasion.
However, he was most famous for being assassinated early in his presidency on November 22, 1963.
The Assassination
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy and his wife were in Dallas. Prior to this, Kennedy was in Austin and Fort Worth were he had spoken. They had taken a car from the aircraft, they had flown, to go to the place where Kennedy had to give another speech.
The president and his wife were riding in a car, in downtown Dallas where two shots could be heard. Both bullets hit the president, one in the neck and one in the head. Shortly after that the president was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.
The Governor of Texas, John B. Connally Jr., was also shot but he survived. So in total there were three bullets that were shot.
The Killer was Killed?
A 24 year-old man, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder just minutes later. However, two days after his arrest he was shot and fatally wounded by nightclub operator, Jack Ruby. This event was broadcasted on live television, and everyone who was watching saw that Ruby killed Oswald.
Following the event, Oswald was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Ruby claimed that he killed Oswald because he didn’t want Jacqueline Kennedy to face him during the trial for Kennedy’s death. Ruby’s trail began in February of 1964, but a month later he was found guilty. He was given the death penalty in the trail. Ruby wanted a higher court to rule over the decision, so in October 1966 a Texas court overturned the conviction. The Texas court had come to the conclusion that illegal testimony had been allowed at his trial. However Ruby died from a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967.
Jack Ruby: The man who killed Oswald and went to jail for his crimes. He later died in jail.
After these events, conspiracies started to form, some claiming that there was no way that Oswald worked alone and that there were two gunmen, or that Ruby killed Oswald to keep him quiet.
Lee Harvey Oswald: The twenty-four year old man who assassinated John F. Kennedy.Two days after his arrest, he was killed by Jack Ruby.
The Assassination in Pop Culture
Kennedy’s assassination has been referenced in pop culture throughout the years. In the 2014 movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past it was revealed that Magneto had been held in the Pentagon for playing a role in Kennedy’s death. However, Magneto claims that he is innocent because he was trying to save the president but failed. The reason for this was Magneto claimed that Kennedy was a mutant, but before he was able to save the president, he was arrested by police.
There have also been many books, music, movies, documentaries, and YouTube videos that follow the death of Kennedy. They either explain what happened, explain theories that have emerged, follow another person’s point of view on the death, etc. However it’s clear to say that the death of President John F. Kennedy hasn’t been forgotten, since November 22, 2019 was marked as it’s 56th anniversary.