This article is for quizzes on Wednesday September 7th...
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC) on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy was traveling with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, in a presidential motorcade. A ten-month investigation from November 1963 to September 1964 by the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone in shooting Kennedy, and that Jack Ruby also acted alone when he killed Oswald before he could stand trial. Kennedy's death marked the fourth and most recent assassination of an American President. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became President upon Kennedy's death, taking the constitutionally prescribed oath of office onboard Air Force One at Dallas's Love Field airport before departing for Washington, D.C.
The Zapruder film is a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a home-movie camera, as U.S. President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, thereby unexpectedly capturing the President's assassination.
Although it is not the only film of the shooting, it has been called the most complete, giving a relatively clear view from a somewhat elevated position on the side from which the president's head wound is visible. It was an important part of the Warren Commission hearings and all subsequent investigations of the assassination, and is one of the most studied pieces of film in history. Of greatest notoriety is the film's capture of the fatal shot to President Kennedy's head when his presidential limousine was almost exactly in front of, and slightly below, Zapruder's position.