As Kennedy faced an uncertain re-election campaign, he began to pool support from those who could help. That meant traveling where his base was dwindling.

Texas, home to Vice President Lyndon Johnson, was one of those areas. On November 22, 1963, Mrs. Kennedy, the vice president, and Mrs. Johnson, along with Governor John B. Connally of Texas and his wife, accompanied President Kennedy on a visit to Dallas, Texas. En route to a downtown luncheon, the president chose to ride in an open convertible through the motorcade route with his wife sitting beside him.

As the motorcade approached an underpass, shots rang out in rapid succession. President Kennedy slumped into his seat. One bullet passed through the president's neck and struck Governor Connally in the back. To everyone's horror, the next shot hit Kennedy in the head.

Rushed to Parkland Hospital, the president never regained consciousness. Governor Connally survived surgery, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who had ridden two cars behind in the motorcade, was sworn in as president before the entourage flew back to Washington that day.

Suspect Apprehended

Hours later, Dallas police arrested the suspect Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee in a warehouse building along the motorcade route, who was also charged with shooting a police officer the same afternoon.

Oswald's background check quickly revealed he'd suffered a troubled youth, defected to the Soviet Union (where he was denied citizenship), and had obvious Communist leanings.

Two days later, as the nation mourned the slain president and prepared for a state funeral, Oswald was himself assassinated while being transferred from one jail to another. Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby sprang from a group of reporters to shoot the suspect, who also died at Parkland Hospital.

Chief Justice Earl Warren headed a special commission to investigate Kennedy's death and concluded in 1964 that Oswald had acted alone. In 1979, a committee from the U.S. House of Representatives acknowledged the likelihood that a second assassin had been involved, but to this day, the Kennedy assassination is the subject of conspiracy theories and much debate.

Jack Ruby was convicted of Oswald's death and later died in prison. The 26-second home movie that Abraham Zapruder filmed when he stood in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, waiting for President John F. Kennedy's motorcade to pass by, is the graphic and gruesome accounting of the assassination that has been repeatedly studied and analyzed to try to understand what exactly happened.

National Mourning

On November 24, 1963, the nation mourned as the president's body was carried by horse-drawn carriage from the White House to the Rotunda of the Capitol. Hundreds of thousands filed past the coffin to pay their respects. A state funeral took place the next day. Foreign dignitaries and heads of state attended. Citizens lined the streets of Washington, D.C., as the funeral cortege made its way to Arlington National Cemetery.

One poignant moment the nation would not soon forget was the sight of the slain president's three-year-old son, John Jr., saluting his father's casket. At Arlington, Mrs. Kennedy lit an eternal flame that still burns today. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was buried decades later next to her late husband.