In 1963 John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, was assassinated at around 12:30 local time (18:30 GMT) in Dallas, Texas.

On the 20^th of January 1961 John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35^th President of the United States of America. Kennedy was also the youngest President at forty-three years old and in contrast took over from the oldest American President, General Dwight Eisenhower aged 70.

This young charismatic president brought with him a new sense of hope and change around the world. Kennedy presided over some of the most important diplomatic decisions facing any US President during the 20^th century. 

On the 22^nd of October 1962 the announcement of the ‘Cuban Missile Crises’ caused panic across the world almost starting Global Nuclear War. Britain, Turkey and Italy had United States Thermonuclear Jupiter and Thor missiles in their countries for a few years when the Russian’s, using their influence, placed some of their own in Cuba. Previously America had not had the threat of nuclear missiles on their doorstep and Cuba being just 90 miles from Florida the US would have little time to react. For the theoretical ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ deterrent to work being able to respond quickly was vital and without it, Russia had the advantage. Kennedy had known about the construction of the missiles in Cuba for several days but didn’t want to let the Russians know until he had put a plan in action. He had the island of Cuba surrounded by the US navy in order to prevent more arms being brought into the country and he also demanded the missiles be dismantled. For thirteen days the world watched with fear and dread until the two superpowers leaders managed to end the crisis peacefully. Russian President Nikita Krushchev agreed to the dismantle ling of the missiles if the US agreed not to invade Cuba (and more secretly the United States promised to remove its missiles from Turkey, but this was not revealed for 25 years). The crisis was over but the panic felt around the world was remembered for a long time afterwards.

The holy grail of the space race was considered to be the landing of a human on the surface of an extraterrestrial body. On the 20^th of September 1962 US President J F Kennedy made a proposal of a joint project to the moon with Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev initially turned down the offer but he had a good relationship with Kennedy and in the weeks that followed he began to see the financial benefits of a joint operation. But before Khrushchev could agree with the proposal the Cuban Missile Crisis (14^th-18^th of October 1962) took place damaging relations. The following year when President J.F. Kennedy was assassinated (22^nd of November 1963) all chance of a joint operation was lost. A joint operation to the moon would have ended the space race and made huge headway in ending the cold war.

On the 16^th of July 1969 the United States Luna 11 was launched and on the 20th of July it made the first manned landing on extraterrestrial body. Neil Armstrong became the first Human being to set foot on the surface of the moon six hours after the landing of the Luna Module on the 21^st of July 1969.

 Vice President Lyndon Johnson took over as President after Kennedy’s assassination.

Lee Harvey Oswald, The gunman officially blamed for the assassination of John F. Kennedy, President of the USA, was himself shot dead by a night club owner called Jack Ruby during Oswald’s transportation from the police headquarters to the county jail.