On his visit to Dallas on 22 November, 1963, President John F. Kennedy rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza on his way to the Dallas Trade Mart. In the presidential car with Kennedy were his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife Nellie. Hundreds of well-wishers were scattered throughout the Plaza. Nellie Connally's last words to Kennedy, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you!" reflected the sentiment of the crowd.
Suddenly, at 12:30pm, after the motorcade turned from Houston Street onto Elm Street, shots were fired, killing President Kennedy and wounding Governor Connally. Bob Jackson, a Dallas Times Herald photographer, was in a press car in motorcade, eight cars behind the President. After he heard a third shot, Jackson looked up and spotted a rifle at a sixth-floor corner window in the Texas School Book Depository building.
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is an educational and permanent historic exhibit that examines the life, times, death and legacy of President John F. Kennedy within the context of American history. The museum's exhibition area uses historic films, photographs, artifacts and interpretive displays to document the events of the assassination, the findings of the official investigations that followed and the historical legacy of that national tragedy.
The Kennedy assassination remains one of the most significant events in American history and the assassination site is the most visited historic site in North Texas. Many of the visitors to the site come to resolve feelings of grief that persist even after over three decades. Still others, those too young to remember (now over half of the U.S. population), come to learn more about a man and an event that profoundly shaped the United States.
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