Washington, Nov 23: The United States solemnly remembered President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, exactly 40 years ago, yesterday.
Pensioners, families and school children crowded
around Kennedy's grave at Arlington national cemetery outside
Washington, where an eternal flame has burned for 40 years.
Some had waited since dawn to lay flowers.
In Dallas, Texas, onlookers gathered at the site of
the shooting, Dealey Plaza, under skies as blue and splendid
as on that day four decades ago, at exactly 12:30 pm.
Besides the somber and spontaneous commemorations,
publishers, broadcasters and artists have contributed their
own remembrances.
The Kennedy family had requested there be no official
commemoration acts.
"We obviously have tried to give the focus and
attention on the President's birthday in the spring," JFK's
brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, told a television channel.
"John F Kennedy has been gone nearly as long as he
lived, yet the memory of him still brings pride to our
nation, and a feeling of loss that defies the passing of
years," President George W. Bush the US President said in a
statement late Friday.
On November 22, 1963, a brisk, sun-bathed Texas day,
the country's 35th and youngest President was cut down by
sniper bullets as he and his wife, Jackie, rode in an
open-top Limousine through crowd-lined streets in Dallas.
Bureau Report
