On this date, Thursday, November 21, 1963, it's wheels up for President Kennedy, on his way to Texas

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Timeline of the John F. Kennedy assassination

Prelude
....

November 15, 1963: President Kennedy delivers a speech in New York City at the AFL-CIO convention then flies to West Palm Beach, Florida to spend his last weekend.

The White House announces that the Dallas Trade Mart would be the site of President Kennedy’s luncheon address and there would definitely be a motorcade through downtown Dallas. Up until that point there was speculation in the news media that Kennedy’s tight schedule in Texas would not allow enough time for a motorcade through Dallas.

November 16, 1963: President Kennedy tours Cape Canaveral to inspect plans for the U.S. man-to-the-moon project and to direct the submarine firing of a Polaris A-2 missile.

November 17, 1963: President Kennedy stays in Palm Beach, Florida spending much of the day preparing for the five speeches he will deliver the next day in Tampa and Miami.

November 18, 1963: President Kennedy gives three speeches in Tampa plus a motorcade through the city, then flies to Miami and gives two more speeches including a hemisphere policy talk at the Miami Beach convention of the Inter-American Press Association where he urges the Cuban people to overthrow the Castro regime.[116] He then flies back to Washington D.C. late that evening. On the return flight, Kennedy confided to his good friend Senator George Smathers (D-FL) that Vice President Lyndon Johnson wanted First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to ride in the car with him during the upcoming tour of Texas.

November 19, 1963: In an informal discussion with his secretary Evelyn Lincoln, President Kennedy revealed some of the plans he had for his next administration if he were re-elected in 1964. He informs Lincoln that he is seriously considering replacing Vice President Lyndon Johnson as his running mate in 1964 with Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina.

November 22, 1963: The second in a series of articles on the Bobby Baker scandal appears in Life Magazine.

Kennedy's upcoming trip to Dallas was first announced to the public in September 1963. The exact motorcade route was finalized on November 18 and announced to the public a few days before November 22.

During the third week of October 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was living in a rented room in a boarding house in the Oak Cliff district of Dallas. He had just been hired for a seasonal job at the Texas School Book Depository as a $1.25/hour clerk, filling customer orders for books. Oswald had obtained the job after a referral by Ruth Paine, with whom Lee's wife, Marina Oswald, and the Oswald children were living. At about the same time, Ruth had also separated from her husband, Michael Paine.

A month before Kennedy's ill-fated trip, U.N. Ambassador Stevenson was jeered, jostled, hit by a sign, and spat upon when he visited Dallas to mark U.N. Day. Dallas Police were fearful that similar demonstrations would occur when Kennedy visited Dallas. Several people, including Stevenson, warned JFK against coming to Dallas, but Kennedy ignored their advice. Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry increased the level of security during Kennedy's visit; he put into effect the most stringent security precautions in the city's history. Curry even deputized citizens to take action for any suspicious acts that could have been pointed towards the president.

President Kennedy's Texas trip schedule

Thursday, November 21

San Antonio: Dedication speech for U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base.
Houston: Testimonial dinner at the Sam Houston Coliseum, honoring Congressman Albert Thomas (Beforehand, the Presidential party makes an impromptu visit at a League of United Latin American Citizens dinner at the Rice Hotel. After the President's brief address, the First Lady speaks to the audience in Spanish.)
Fort Worth: Arrival at Hotel Texas.

Friday, November 22

Fort Worth: Chamber of Commerce breakfast speech at Hotel Texas.
Dallas: Luncheon speech attended by Dallas Citizens Council, Dallas Assembly and Graduate Research Center of the Southwest at Trade Mart.
Austin: Fundraising dinner speech at Municipal Auditorium.
Johnson City: Weekend of relaxation at Lyndon Johnson's ranch.

November 21: Arrival in Fort Worth

On Thursday, November 21, 1963, at 11:07 p.m., Air Force One lands at Carswell Air Force Base on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas. The president and his wife walk down the steps of the aircraft and are met by Raymond Buck, president of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and his wife.

Air Force Two also lands at Carswell with vice president Lyndon B. Johnson, the Texas governor John Connally, and Senator Ralph Yarborough. Connally and Yarborough dislike each other so much that Yarborough is unwilling to travel in the same car as Johnson, who is an ally of Connally. The following day, the president tells him to ride with Johnson.

At 11:35 p.m., the First Couple arrives at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, after being cheered by thousands of well-wishers lined on the route towards the West Freeway. Despite the late time and rainy weather, the President and Mrs. Kennedy take some time to shake hands with well-wishers gathered outside the hotel before retiring to their assigned suite (Room 850) for the night.

[hlthe2b]

1. ...

What If?...

[Tanuki]

2. R.I.P. I visited the JFK Presidential Library last summer. Beautiful I.M. Pei building

It was a deeply moving experience. What a contrast with our current travesty, looking at photos from the party in honor of Andre Malreaux, or the performance of Pablo Casals, or the POTUS and FLOTUS chatting with Pearl S. Buck and Robert Frost at a White House event honoring Nobel Laureates. While viewing the section on the Cuban Missile Crisis, I couldn't help but shudder to think what would happen if we faced a true crisis with the incumbent baboon at the helm.

[Bob Munck]

3. We all remember where we were

That morning, 56 years ago tomorrow, was the last time I shaved. I was in physics lab in the old Wilson Building at Brown, measuring the gravitational constant, when a grad student came in and announced that Kennedy had been shot. A guy at the next lab bench cheered; he and I have been projecting hate at each other on alumni mailing lists ever since.

I'd actually met Jack Kennedy at the Army-Navy game the previous year. We were sitting in the middle of the Corps of Cadets courtesy of an uncle who taught math at West Point. At halftime JFK and his entourage came across the field and sat right in front of us. He was, of course, former Navy. We chatted a bit about college choices. (Years later his son was in the same dorm room I occupied for three years.)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Thank you for sharing that remarkable story with us.

Welcome to DU.

[RT Atlanta]

4. a sad date with destiny in our nation's history

God Speed

[YOHABLO]

5. I was living in Austin TX. 2nd grade. Kennedy was coming

to Austin for a fund raising dinner, there was to be a motorcade parade. We were being let out of school early to go downtown to see the president and his wife. My teachers were all crying and they sent us home early. You don't ever forget where you were when things like this happen.

[bdamomma]

7. If JFK had lived

and his brother and MLK, and if those Democratic candidates for Presidents won can you imagine what kind of world we would be living in??? More peaceful and definitely sane.

We will rise.