The US has marked 50 years since
President John F Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas.
The city, which long struggled with the legacy of the
assassination, hosted a series of official events.
Kennedy, who served less than three years, is often ranked
among the nation's most revered presidents.
Just 46 when he died, he is praised for his youthful
vigour, his leadership through the Cuban missile crisis and his vision to put a
man on the Moon.
But he is also remembered for ordering one of the most
disastrous episodes of the Cold War, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of
communist Cuba by a CIA-trained paramilitary force of Cuban exiles.
Kennedy's
family members laid a wreath on his grave at Arlington National Cemetery near
Washington DC on Friday. His wife Jackie and two of their children are also
buried there.
President Barack Obama issued a proclamation for flags to
be flown at half mast at the White House, US Capitol and other government
buildings.
"Today, we honour his memory and celebrate his
enduring imprint on American history," he said.
Among official events in Dallas on Friday, the city's
symphony orchestra performed and bells tolled at the minute of Kennedy's death.
Crowds thronged the ceremony at Dealey Plaza, where the president was shot.
"The man we remember today gave us a gift that will
not be squandered: the chance to learn how to face the future when it's the
darkest and most uncertain," Dallas Mayor Michael Rawlings said to a large
crowd before a moment of silence was observed.
Historian and author David McCullough read several of
Kennedy's most famous quotes, including: "We need men who can dream of
things that never were, and ask, 'Why not?'"
Elsewhere,
wreaths were laid in the German capital Berlin where Kennedy gave his Cold
War-era "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in June 1963.
Those events and others conclude a week of tributes to the
slain American leader.
Kennedy, a Democrat, belonged to one of the 20th Century's
most prominent American political dynasties.
Conspiracy theorists
gather
On
22 November 1963, he and his wife travelled to Dallas for early campaigning
ahead of the following year's election.
Crowds
of supporters lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the couple. As the
presidential motorcade entered Dealey Plaza at around 12:30 local time (18:30
GMT), Kennedy's convertible passed the Texas School Book Depository.
Gunshots rang out. Bullets struck the president in the
head and neck. Half an hour later, Kennedy was pronounced dead at a local
hospital.
He was the fourth US president assassinated while in
office, but the first to have his death captured on film.
Soon after, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as
president aboard Air Force One.
Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine Corps veteran and
Soviet defector employed at the depository at the time, was arrested in
connection with the shooting.
On 24 November 1963, he was scheduled to be transferred
from police headquarters to a county jail when he was shot and killed by Jack
Ruby, a local nightclub owner.
Official inquiries have determined Oswald was responsible
for the assassination, but Kennedy's murder has provided endless fodder for
conspiracy theorists.
Members of one such group demonstrated in Dealey Plaza on
Friday, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "50 years in denial is
enough" and holding a sign that said "coup d'etat".
'Look of horror'
The
events of that November plunged the nation into mourning, and many Americans
still recall where they were when they heard the news.
Texan
Daniel Kendrick, who as a teenager witnessed the shooting, told the BBC he had
been preparing to approach the motorcade in the hope of shaking the president's
hand when he witnessed Kennedy's shooting.
"I saw the look on Jackie Kennedy's face," he
recalled. "She turned and looked straight at me with a look of horror on
her face. That really freaked me out. I had to run."
Historian Robert Dallek said Kennedy's popularity endured
in part because Americans have been so disappointed in his successors.
"People want a better life in this country," he
said. "They want to think their children are going to do better. And they
associate this with Kennedy's youth, his promise, possibility."
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