By Joseph Lazzaro: Subscribe to Joseph's RSS feed
November 21, 2011 2:01 PM EST
Most likely, one would have to have been born in 1960 to have had any recollection of it -- you would have been a 3-year-old when it occurred -- or perhaps born in 1959 -- a 4-year-old.
The event? One of the saddest, most horrific moments in American history -- and certainly in the modern era -- the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 48 years ago, on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.
Further, since it occurred almost a half-century ago, most Americans alive today have no recollection of the event, as well the controversy regarding the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. But for those who are old enough to remember the events of Nov. 22, 1963, and the immediate days later, they know exactly where they were when they heard the news that day -- just as contemporary Americans old enough to remember the events of 9/11 know where they were on that day. Like 9/11, the Kennedy assassination is one of those days when the world changed -- historic -- the end of an era, and the start of the next.
Controversy surrounds the assassination to this day in part because Oswald himself was murdered two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, before a trial could take place. The Ruby action fanned speculation of a conspiracy and/or a government/organizational attempt to cover-up the Kennedy assassination.
Best Evidence: Oswald Acted Alone
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However, the Warren Commission, led by U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren, formed to investigate the assassination, concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin.
Literally hundreds of books and private investigations have followed in the decades since the Warren Commission, but none has been able to incontrovertibly prove that anyone other than Oswald sought to kill President Kennedy on that day.
Since last decade, the Kennedy family has focused on President Kennedy's birthday, May 29, 1917; however, memorial services are held in remembrance and it's safe to say that this week many Roman Catholic parishes in the U.S. will have Masses said for President Kennedy, the first and only Roman Catholic elected president of the U.S.
One Brief Shining Moment
The Kennedy family and John F. Kennedy Presidential Library hold services on the president's birthday to emphasize his life: and what a life it was!
Born to a prominent Boston family, Kennedy was a decorated U.S. Navy Commander, and he heroically towed a badly burned crewman through water after his boat, PT-109, was rammed by the Japanese Destroyer Amagiri on Aug. 2, 1943.
After the war, Kennedy won election to first the U.S. House of Representatives in 1946 and then the U.S. Senate in 1952, defeating Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. In 1953, he married Jacqueline Bouvier.
Kennedy's election to the U.S. presidency in November 1960 marked a new era for the U.S. -- the modern era and the space age -- with the youthful Kennedy aptly referencing in his January 1961 inaugural speech that, "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans..."
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