Three days after his assassination in Dallas, Texas, John F. Kennedy rests with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was gunned down as he drove in a motorcade of discovered cars with his wife and Texas Governor John Connally through the streets of downtown Dallas. Former Navy and Communist sympathizer Lee Harvey Oswald was the alleged assassin. Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. He was 46 years old.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who was three cars away from President Kennedy in the procession, was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States less than two hours later. He took the presidential oath on board Air Force One while sitting on the runway at Dallas Love Field Airport. About 30 people attended the swearing-in, including Jacqueline Kennedy, who was still wearing clothes stained with her husband’s blood. Seven minutes later, the presidential plane takes off for Washington.
The next day, November 23, President Johnson issued his first proclamation, declaring November 25 a day of national mourning for the slain president. On that day, hundreds of thousands marched through the streets of Washington to watch a horse-drawn caisson carry Kennedy’s body from the Capitol Rotunda to St. Matthew’s Catholic Cathedral for a requiem mass. The solemn procession then continued to Arlington National Cemetery, where leaders of 99 nations gathered for the state funeral. Kennedy was buried with full military honors on a slope below Arlington House, where an eternal flame was lit by his widow to mark the grave forever.
WATCH: The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours Later on HISTORY Vault
