Reactions to the assassination of John F. Kennedy
Open-knowledge reference entry
Around the world, there were shocked reactions to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States, on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
There was great confusion in the hour between Kennedy's shooting and the announcement of his death. Taking place during the Cold War, it was at first unclear whether the shooting might be part of a larger attack upon the U.S., and whether Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had been riding two cars behind in the motorcade, was safe.
The news shocked the nation. Many people wept openly. Crowds gathered in public places to watch the television coverage. Traffic in some areas came to a halt as the news spread from car to car, even gathering around cars to listen to radio reports. Schools across the U.S. dismissed their students early. Misplaced anger against Texas and Texans was reported by some individuals. Various Cleveland Browns fans, for example, carried signs at next Sunday's home game against the Dallas Cowboys, decrying the city of Dallas as having "killed the president." There were also instances of Kennedy's opponents cheering the assassination.
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This entry incorporates text from “Reactions to the assassination of John F. Kennedy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.