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Assassination of John F. Kennedy

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The US is marking 50 years since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas, which has long struggled with the legacy of the murder, hosts a series of official events on Friday.

John F. Kennedy is often ranked among the nation’s most revered presidents, though he served less than three years.

He is commemorated for his youthful vigor, his leadership through the Cuban missile crisis, and his challenge to America to put a man on the Moon.

But he is also remembered for ordering one of the most disastrous episodes of the Cold War, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of communist Cuba by a CIA-trained paramilitary force of Cuban exiles.

JFK’s family members laid a wreath on his grave at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC on Friday. His wife Jackie Kennedy and two of their children are also buried there.

Nearby, President Barack Obama ordered the White House flag be flown at half mast.

Among official events in Dallas on Friday, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will perform, Mayor Michael Rawlings will give an address, and bells will toll at the minute of Kennedy’s death.

Those events and others conclude a week of tributes to the slain US leader.

John F. Kennedy is often ranked among the nation's most revered presidents, though he served less than three years

John F. Kennedy is often ranked among the nation’s most revered presidents, though he served less than three years

Kennedy, a Democrat, was part of one of the most prominent US political dynasties of the 20th Century.

His father, Joseph, was a wealthy businessman who served in senior positions in the government of President Franklin Roosevelt, including as ambassador to Britain.

Two of his brothers later served as US senators and ran for president. One of them, Robert, was himself assassinated in 1968. Edward Kennedy, who died in 2009, was a champion of progressive causes including universal healthcare.

JFK’s daughter Caroline is now the US ambassador to Japan.

On November 22, 1963, JFK and his wife Jackie travelled to Dallas for early campaigning ahead of the following year’s election.

Crowds of supporters lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the couple. As the presidential motorcade entered Dealey Plaza at around 12:30 local time, JFK’s convertible passed the Texas School Book Depository.

Gunshots rang out across the plaza. Bullets struck the president in the head and neck. Half an hour later, JFK was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Soon after, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One.

Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee at the depository, was arrested in connection with the shooting.

On November 24, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was scheduled to be transferred from police headquarters to a county jail when he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner.

Although JFK’s murder has provided endless fodder for conspiracy theorists, official inquiries have determined Lee Harvey Oswald alone was responsible for the assassination.

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Gerald Laing’s Lincoln Convertible, the only known contemporary painting of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has gone on display at Tate Britain.

Gerald Laing, who spent a large part of his life in the Highlands, created the artwork shortly after JFK’s assassination 50 years ago.

His New York dealer refused to exhibit it and it was put in storage.

Gerald Laing, who was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, had been living on the Black Isle when he died in 2011.

He spent much of the 1960s working in New York and was a close friend of artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

Gerald Laing’s Lincoln Convertible is the only known contemporary painting of the assassination of JFK

Gerald Laing’s Lincoln Convertible is the only known contemporary painting of the assassination of JFK

Lincoln Convertible was considered too controversial to be displayed so soon after JFK’s death in Dallas 1963.

It was kept in storage for about 30 years before galleries felt comfortable enough to exhibit it.

Almost 9.10ft long, Lincoln Convertible painting is based on film footage of the assassination taken by Dallas resident Abraham Zapruder.

The painting – in which Gerald Laing used colored dots for the first and only time in his career – depicts the Lincoln car in which the president and his wife had been travelling.

Jackie Kennedy can be seen in her pink pill-box hat, while her husband leans over having been shot.

The American flag is seen going off the screen to the right and below are the legs of secret service men running across the grass towards the car.

The bottom of the canvas shows in part an earlier frame of the film, where the head of JFK’s chauffeur and the American flag are visible.

The painting is owned by the artist’s estate.

Gerald Laing’s most famous works included images of actresses Brigitte Bardot and Anna Karina.

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