Collection The 2020 White House Christmas Ornament
Every year since 1981, the White House Historical Association has had the privilege of designing the Official White House Christmas Ornament....
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November 25, 1963
John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Shocked and saddened by that news bulletin, Americans that lived through the 1960s will never forget the day of Kennedy's death and the sorrow of that solemn funeral. Television brought those events immediately and continually into America's homes. The president had been pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital in Dallas at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. ET). Later that afternoon Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States aboard Air Force One. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy stood and witnessed the ceremony in a bloodstained pink suit. The slain president's body in the back of the plane was carried back to Andrews Air Force base with the new president and the official entourage.
Mrs. Kennedy instructed chief usher J.B. West to follow the protocol and details of Lincoln's 1865 state funeral for her husband. Kennedy's remains were taken to the center of the East Room and set upon the same catafalque used at Lincoln's funeral. On the twenty-third various officials and heads of state were received and viewed the flag-draped coffin. The public was not admitted. The following day the coffin was taken to the Capitol rotunda. More than 250,000 people filed past Kennedy's flag-draped coffin. On November 25, the day of the funeral, a horse-drawn caisson carried the casket down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. There Mrs. Kennedy and the mourners, official and personal, waited. They walked with the procession—military escort, band, and the symbolic rider less horse with boots reversed in the stirrups—eight blocks to St. Matthew's Cathedral, where the funeral service was held. After the service, the caisson carried the president's remains to their final resting place in Arlington Memorial Cemetery.
President Kennedy's casket as seen through the East Room doorway, November 23, 1963.
Every year since 1981, the White House Historical Association has had the privilege of designing the Official White House Christmas Ornament....
The collection of fine art at the White House has evolved and grown over time. The collection began with mostly...
Biographies & Portraits
Death comes to every home, including the White House. From the loss of cherished family members to presidential funerals, there...
The White House Historical Association has been preserving and sharing White House history since its founding by First Lady Jacqueline...
After President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy wanted her husband to be remembered through a national cu...
Biographies & Portraits
In 1963, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy helped arrange one of the most daring art exhibits in history, charming the French Government...
It is hard to imagine that it was something as casual as a lunch conversation between a newly elected president...
President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s advocacy for the arts endures as a vital part of th...
At age 43, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the youngest person ever elected to the presidency. Before his vibrant presidency was cut...
In 1961, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy resolved to make the White House a “living museum” by restoring the historic integrity of the...