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John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald



John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States (1961–63), who faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. He was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas.
He was the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the presidency of the United States. His administration lasted 1,037 days. From the onset he was concerned with foreign affairs. In his memorable inaugural address, he called upon Americans “to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle…against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.” He declared:
”In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it.…The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
Lee Harvey Oswald is the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy. As history records, at 12:30 pm on November 22, 1963, from a window on the sixth floor of the depository building, Oswald, using a mail-order rifle, allegedly fired three shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Texas Gov. John B. Connally in an open-car motorcade in Dealey Plaza. Oswald took a bus and a taxi to his rooming house, departed, and about a mile away was stopped by Patrolman J.D. Tippit, who believed that Oswald resembled the suspect already being described over the police radio. Oswald killed Tippit with his mail-order revolver (1:15 pm). At about 1:45 pm Oswald was seized in the Texas Theatre by police officers responding to reports of a suspect. At 1:30 am on November 23 he was formally arraigned for the murder of President Kennedy.
On the morning of November 24, while being transferred from a jail cell to an interrogation office, Oswald was shot by a distraught Dallas nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. Ruby was tried and found guilty of murder (March 14, 1964) and sentenced to death. In October 1966 a Texas appeals court reversed the conviction, but, before a new trial could be held, Ruby died of a blood clot, complicated by cancer (January 3, 1967).




Picture of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a Russian newspaper and a rifle; the Warren Commission concluded that the rifle was used to assassinate U.S. President John F. Kennedy

Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth

Abraham Lincoln was 16th president of the United States (1861–65), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of the slaves. Among American heroes, Lincoln continues to have a unique appeal for his fellow countrymen and also for people of other lands. This charm derives from his remarkable life story—the rise from humble origins, the dramatic death—and from his distinctively human and humane personality as well as from his historical role as savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves. His relevance endures and grows especially because of his eloquence as a spokesman for democracy. In his view, the Union was worth saving not only for its own sake but because it embodied an ideal, the ideal of self-government. In recent years, the political side to Lincoln’s character, and his racial views in particular, have come under close scrutiny, as scholars continue to find him a rich subject for research.
John Wilkes Booth, a member of one of the United States’ most distinguished acting families of the 19th century, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Booth was a vigorous supporter of the Southern cause and outspoken in his advocacy of slavery and his hatred of Lincoln. He was a volunteer in the Richmond militia that hanged the abolitionist John Brown in 1859. By the autumn of 1864 Booth had begun to plan a sensational abduction of President Lincoln. He recruited several coconspirators, and throughout the winter of 1864–65 the group gathered frequently in Washington, D.C., where they mapped out a number of alternative abduction plans. After several attempts had miscarried, Booth resolved to destroy the president and his officers no matter what the cost.
On the morning of April 14, 1865, Booth learned that the president was to attend an evening performance of the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in the capital. Booth hurriedly assembled his band and assigned each member his task, including the murder of Secretary of State William Seward. He himself would kill Lincoln. About 6:00 pm Booth entered the deserted theatre, where he tampered with the outer door of the presidential box so that it could be jammed shut from the inside. He returned during the play’s third act to find Lincoln and his guests unguarded.
Entering the box, Booth drew a pistol and shot Lincoln through the back of the head. He grappled briefly with a patron, swung himself over the balustrade, and leaped off it, shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (the motto of the state of Virginia, meaning “Thus always to tyrants!”) and “The South is avenged!” He landed heavily on the stage, breaking a bone in his left leg, but was able to make his escape to the alleyway and his horse. The attempt on Seward’s life failed, but Lincoln died shortly after seven o’clock the following morning.
Eleven days later, on April 26, Federal troops arrived at a farm in Virginia, just south of the Rappahannock River, where a man said to be Booth was hiding in a tobacco barn. David Herold, another conspirator, was in the barn with Booth. He gave himself up before the barn was set afire, but Booth refused to surrender. After being shot, either by a soldier or by himself, Booth was carried to the porch of the farmhouse, where he subsequently died. The body was identified by a doctor who had operated on Booth the year before, and it was then secretly buried, though four years later it was reinterred. There is no acceptable evidence to support the rumors, current at the time, doubting that the man who had been killed was actually Booth.



Picture of Broadside advertising a $100,000 reward for the capture of John Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and David Harold (a misspelling of Herold), suspected of conspiring in the assassination of U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln, 1865.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3g05341u)

Martin Luther King and James Earl Ray



Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. His leadership was fundamental to that movement’s success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. King rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which promoted nonviolent tactics, such as the massive March on Washington (1963), to achieve civil rights. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
In the years after his death, King remained the most widely known African American leader of his era. His stature as a major historical figure was confirmed by the successful campaign to establish a national holiday in his honor in the United States and by the building of a King memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C., near the Lincoln Memorial, the site of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Many states and municipalities have enacted King holidays, authorized public statues and paintings of him, and named streets, schools, and other entities for him.
James Earl Ray was King’s assassin. Ray had been a small-time crook, a robber of gas stations and stores, who had served time in prison, once in Illinois and twice in Missouri, and received a suspended sentence in Los Angeles. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary on April 23, 1967; and in Memphis, Tenn., nearly a year later, on April 4, 1968, from a window of a neighboring rooming house, he shot King, who was standing on the balcony of a motel room.
Ray fled to Toronto, secured a Canadian passport through a travel agency, flew to London (May 5), then to Lisbon (May 7?), where he secured a second Canadian passport (May 16), and back to London (May 17?). On June 8 he was apprehended by London police at Heathrow Airport as he was about to embark for Brussels; the FBI had established him as the prime suspect almost immediately after the assassination. Back in Memphis, Ray pleaded guilty, forfeiting a trial, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Months later, he recanted his confession, without effect. In renouncing his guilt, Ray raised the specter of a conspiracy behind King’s murder but offered scant evidence to support his claim. Later in life his pleas for a trial were encouraged by some civil-rights leaders, notably the King family. In June 1977 Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain (Tenn.) Prison and remained at large for 54 hours before being recaptured in a massive manhunt.

Gandhi

ironic how a man who preached non-violence all his life was assassinated. He was shot on 30th January, 1948 by a Hindu nationalist, Nathuram Godse. Before his death, Gandhi had said, "If I were to be shot in the chest and died with the words Hey Ram on my lips, only then would I be a true Mahatma."

Franz Ferdinand: The death that triggered the World War
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia. On 28th June, 1914, 19-year-old, Gavrilo Princip shot Franz Ferdinand and even his wife Sophie. Franz's death sparked the beginning of what came to be called World War One. And that's how it started (we always had Dummies as leaders )

Yitzhak Rabin: The one who tried to resolve the 'Israel-Palestine' conflict
The Israeli PM had signed the Oslo Accords which aimed at resolving Israeli-Palestinian issues. A right wing radical by the name of Yigal Amir got angry and assassinated the PM on 4th November, 1995.

Malcolm X
The American Muslim (Not the Religious Islam , he mistook Islam as a movement in jail ) and human rights activist told an interviewer on 19th Feb, 1965, that he was a target for the Nation of Islam, a group that he had denounced a year before. Two days later, he was shot 21 times over his body after receiving 10 buckshot wounds from a shotgun at the Audubon Ballroom.
RIP Brother Minister X
I am X
You are X
Our race is unknown ,we are X

Robert F Kennedy: The younger Kennedy


He was campaigning for presidency in 1968. He won the California presidential primary and right after midnight, on 5th June, was shot by a young Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan. He was shot thrice and 5 others were wounded. His last words were "Is everybody safe; OK?" He died in hospital the next day.

Beautiful piece.

dynicks:
FRONT PAGE WORTHY!!.....ASAP!!

it's not how it works .

EmptyGarden:
Beautiful piece.

glad you liked this , I have mass collection of horrible Histories ,feel free to go through anytime

TheSourcerer:
glad you liked this , I have mass collection of horrible Histories ,feel free to go through anytime

Much obliged.

TheSourcerer:
it's not how it works .

how then does it work sir for a befitting write-up/ expository such as this to be pushed to front page?....abi do aspiring front page materials tend to drop matching ground fee?

Nicee one...
Quite knowledgable

dynicks:
how then does it work sir for a befitting write-up/ expository such as this to be pushed to front page?....abi do aspiring front page materials tend to drop matching ground fee?

celebrity news make front pages , news gossip and definite political propaganda are meant for spotlight , knowledge usually is hidden . It's always been that way , why do you think there's no history thread?

I will Google that ghandi story .

Oboy, I read everything before commenting

He's

TheSourcerer:
glad you liked this , I have mass collection of horrible Histories ,feel free to go through anytime

Give us naija version that we can relate to.......


All dis oyibo names get as dem be.....

:FRONT PAGE WORTHY!!.....ASAP!! it's not how it works .

EricSmallz:
Oboy, I read everything before commenting

It's the sorcerer na so him threads dey be.

TheFacelessMan:

Deop it like it's hot.

Water running my eyes

Hmm

Me like it

I love history men,as I read I form mental images in my head and it gives me some wonderful feelings. Thanks sorcerer I always love your threads.

Nice one

TheSourcerer:
Franz Ferdinand: The death that triggered the World War
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia. On 28th June, 1914, 19-year-old, Gavrilo Princip shot Franz Ferdinand and even his wife Sophie. Franz's death sparked the beginning of what came to be called World War One. And that's how it started (we always had Dummies as leaders )

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.

I believe his wife was never on the assassin's hitlist. She was what you might want to call a "collateral damage".

They just couldn't help it. The assassins were all a bunch of amateurs after all. They couldn't shoot properly, they couldn't deploy a grenade properly. They still couldn't commit suicide properly.

They were absolutely rubbish at almost everything.

mansakhalifa:
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary.

I believe his wife was never on the assassin's hitlist. She was what you might want to call a "collateral damage".

They just couldn't help it. The assassins were all a bunch of amateurs after all. They couldn't shoot properly, they couldn't deploy a grenade properly. They still couldn't commit suicide properly.

They were absolutely rubbish at almost everything.

they were absolute rubbish at almost everything, but successfully kicked off a world war
Your comment is well researched, I'll follow you ,do follow back

TheSourcerer:
they were absolute rubbish at almost everything, but successfully kicked off a world war
Your comment is well researched, I'll follow you ,do follow back

Wilco, sir.

Is your list still up for expansion? You might want to include a certain Czolgosz(Leon Czolgosz). The last man to carry out a successful assassination against a sitting US president.

That sort of makes him famous.