On Nov. 22, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was driven by motorcade from Dallas Love Field Airport through the city of Dallas. The motorcade consisted of three cars, with the president, Jacqueline Kennedy, driver Secret Service agent Bill Greer, Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman, Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife Nellie Connally, riding in the second car, a 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible.

The 10-mile route was carefully planned by the Secret Service to give the president maximum access to the people of Dallas. The route was well publicized days before in the Dallas newspapers. Eager crowds of over 150,000 people lined the route to catch a glimpse of the president. As the motorcade made a left onto Elm Street, past Dealey Plaza, it passed by the Texas School Book Depository.

The famous Zapruder 8mm film captured the assassination of the president, the effects of the shots fired and reaction of the passengers in the Lincoln convertible.

Based on this film, photos and witnesses' accounts, it is believed that the first shot entered his upper back, penetrated his neck, slightly damaged a spinal vertebra and the top of his right lung, exited his throat nearly centerline just beneath his larynx, then nicked the left side of his suit tie knot. A second shot then struck the president, entered the rear of his head then exploded out a roughly oval-shaped hole from his head's rear and right side.

The presidential limousine sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy was declared dead at 1 p.m., in the emergency room. Governor Connally, riding in front of the president was critically injured. A single bullet had penetrated his back, exited his chest, shattered his right wrist then entered his left thigh. He was fortunate to have survived his injuries.

Initially arrested for the murder of Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit, who was killed minutes after President Kennedy was shot, Lee Harvey Oswald would later be charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. He allegedly shot the president with a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from a window in the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald denied involvement and declared he was a patsy for the real gunman. Two days later, Oswald was shot and killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, as he was being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail.

News of the assassination spread by television, radio, neighbors and families.The initial reaction, around the world, was stunned disbelief. Children were dismissed from schools, the stock market, and most courts and businesses closed. Everyone gathered by the closest television to watch the grim news reports. Almost immediately conspiracy theories were put forth. The people wanted to know how this could have happened. They demanded answers immediately.

On Nov. 28, 1963, the newly sworn-in president, Lyndon B. Johnson, established the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, also known as the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination.

Ten months later, the commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the killing of President Kennedy and that Jack Ruby also acted alone in the murder of Oswald. The report helped the nation to heal, however conspiracy theories continued to circulate.

Fifty years later, the majority of people still suspect that information surrounding the assassination has been withheld from the public. Frequently mentioned as conspirators or "the second gunman" were organized crime bosses, the KGB, Fidel Castro, anti-Castro exiles, the CIA, FBI, Secret Service or President Johnson himself. People had trouble attributing this terrible tragedy to a 23-year-old mentally-ill man. Jacqueline Kennedy's first reaction, upon being told of Oswald's background, was, "He didn't even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights."

The growing unpopularity of the Vietnam War and later the Watergate scandal led to skepticism toward the federal government and inflamed the conspiracy theorists. In 1992, due to this pressure, Congress passed a law that made 98 percent of the National Archives documents pertaining to the Kennedy assassination available to the public (the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act). The withheld documents include such records as autopsy photos, Secret Service methods and irrelevant testimony. The CIA ordered the withholding of more than a thousand documents for "national security," until 2017.

Today Dealey Plaza, is designated as an historic district by the National Park Service. The location of the presidential limousine at the time of the shooting is marked with an X on the street. The Texas School Book Depository now draws over 325,000 visitors each year to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.