Bulletin
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History November 20 - November 26.
Here is a bulletin from CBS News…
In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kenny’s motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.
The report interrupted the daytime soap opera As the World Turns. It was a little after 1:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Walter Cronkite delivered the report while the words CBS News Bulletin scrolled across the television screen.
The TV drama returned, but only briefly before they switched back and saw Cronkite sitting at a desk at CBS News surrounded by other newsmen and telephones.
He presented a photograph sent by the wire showing Kennedy’s motorcade - a convertible limousine. Sitting next to the president was his wife, First Lady Jackie Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife, Nellie.
What the audience didn’t know at the time was former U.S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald had fatally shot the president from atop the Texas Book Depository, which looked down on the motorcade.
After rushing the president to Parkland Memorial Hospital, he succumbed to his wounds.
Cronkite then announced:
From Dallas, Texas, the flash is apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time—2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.
Cronkite removed his glasses and was visibly upset. The nation watched in real-time, learning that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
Vice-President Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency while on board Air Force One.
Kennedy was the fourth President assassinated, joining William McKinley, James Garfield, and Abraham Lincoln. His death is the most recent passing of a president while serving in office.
He was 46.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. Here's what I got:
1. Inventor Garrett Morgan was awarded the patent for the traffic light on November 20, 1923. The son of two freed slaves and the grandson of a Confederate General, Morgan invented a three-light traffic light, allowing those who want to run a red light to have a few more seconds when it turns yellow.
2. An 18-and-a-half-minute gap in the Watergate tapes was revealed on November 21, 1973. Four days and one Disney World Trip ago, President Nixon told everyone he was not a crook; it was discovered that 18 and half minutes of the secretly recorded discussions between the president and his chief of staff had been recorded over. Nixon’s personal secretary said she mistakenly recorded over the portion while answering the door or something.
3. The British evacuated New York City on November 25, 1783. The Big Apple served as the last military base for our British Overlords, and they took off two months after the American Revolution was decided when we whipped their asses.
Anonymous will be taking Blue to the oncologist this morning to get what we hope will be his final check-up. We had to take him to the emergency room late last night after he was acting weird. He had gotten a chicken bone into his mouth on a walk earlier, and there is nothing better than prying open your dog’s mouth to fish out the disgusting food he is trying to consume. We thought perhaps he had ended up eating some of it, but fortunately, he turned out to be okay.
Unfortunately for him, Blue is headed right back to the vet.
It’s Thanksgiving Week! I love this holiday. This year, I will be cooking a turkey, which means spending some time figuring out how to cook a turkey, something I haven’t done in about ten years.
How difficult can it be?
If I’m back on Friday with another Constitution Amendment ranking, you know I didn’t kill anyone with my lack of culinary skills.
Finally, special thanks to a few of you who have generously supported Okay History by becoming a paid subscriber this past week.
I’m genuinely grateful for all the support you have given me by reading what I put into the world. Thank you.
Anonymous, Blue, and I wish you and your families the very best Thanksgiving.
Okay,
Chris
Yes, he was. He's written about getting the story out of Dallas that day.
What made Kennedy's death so remarkable is that he was the only one of the assassinated Presidents to have his passing extensively covered by visual as well as print media. Cronkite's show of emotion on announcing his death was a breach of typical network newscasting, but that man always did things his own way, and it was necessary then.