John F. Kennedy

Shot on 22 November 1963 in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald, according to the official investigation; the murder of the thirty-fifth president remains the most argued assassination in history.

Overview

Riding through Dealey Plaza in an open limousine, Kennedy was struck by rifle fire from the Texas School Book Depository; he died within the half hour at Parkland hospital. Oswald, a defector returned from the Soviet Union and order filler at the depository, was arrested that afternoon and shot two days later before cameras by the nightclub owner Jack Ruby, silencing any trial. The Warren Commission of 1964 found Oswald the lone gunman; the House Select Committee of 1979 found a probable conspiracy based on acoustic evidence later challenged. The case spawned an industry of investigation, film, and suspicion about Cuba, the mafia, and the intelligence agencies. Kennedy death transfixed the world, passed power to Lyndon Johnson, and changed the security of presidents forever.