You probably also know
there are hundreds of conspiracy theories about who was behind the
assassination, and whether Oswald was the lone gunman or if there was
another shooter on the infamous grassy knoll.
As the nation marks this
tragic anniversary, here are five things you may not know about the
assassination of the 35th president of the United States:
1. Oswald wasn't arrested for JFK killing
Lee Harvey Oswald was actually arrested for fatally shooting a police
officer, Dallas patrolman J.D. Tippitt, 45 minutes after killing
Kennedy. He denied killing either one and, as he was being transferred
to county jail two days later, he was shot and killed by Dallas
nightclub operator Jack Ruby.
2. Assassinating the president wasn't a federal crime in 1963
Despite the
assassinations of three U.S. presidents -- Abraham Lincoln, James
Garfield and William McKinley -- killing or attempting to harm a
president wasn't a federal offense until 1965, two years after Kennedy's
death.
3. TV networks suspended shows for four days
On November 22, 1963, at
12:40 p.m. CST -- just 10 minutes after President Kennedy was shot --
CBS broadcast the first nationwide TV news bulletin on the shooting.
After that, all three television networks -- CBS, NBC, and ABC --
interrupted their regular programming to cover the assassination for
four straight days. The JFK assassination was the longest uninterrupted
news event on television until the coverage of the September 11 attacks
in 2001.
4. It led to the first and only time a woman has sworn in a U.S. president
Hours after the assassination, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One,
with Jacqueline Kennedy at his side, an event captured in an iconic
photograph. Federal Judge Sarah Hughes administered the oath, the only
woman ever to do so.
5. Oswald had tried to assassinate Kennedy foe
Eight months before Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated JFK, he tried to kill
an outspoken anti-communist, former U.S. Army Gen. Edwin Walker. After
his resignation from the U.S. Army in 1961, Walker became an outspoken
critic of the Kennedy administration and actively opposed the move to
racially integrate schools in the South. The Warren Commission, charged
with investigating Kennedy's 1963 assassination, found that Oswald had
tried to shoot and kill Walker while the retired general was inside his
home. Walker sustained minor injuries from bullet fragments.
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