Post date: Nov 22, 2013 4:31:34 PM
Flags on federal government buildings fly at half-staff throughout Washington, D.C., on the 50th anniversary of JFK death.
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 22, 2013) (REUTERS) - Flags on federal government buildings flew at half-staff throughout Washington, D.C., on Friday (November 22) to mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's death.
President Barack Obama declared the anniversary a Day of Remembrance for Kennedy and asked that flags at government buildings throughout the country be lowered to half-staff for the day.Kennedy was shot and killed fifty years ago as his presidential motorcade passed through packed streets in downtown Dallas, Texas.
At Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia where Kennedy is buried, family members laid a wreath at his grave, where Jacqueline Kennedy and two of their children also are buried.
At dawn, Attorney General Eric Holder made a gravesite visit to honor Kennedy, bowing his head and placing a Justice Department commemorative coin at the stone. Holder then walked a short path to the grave of Robert F. Kennedy, who had served as attorney general under his brother, bowed his head and left another coin.
In a late morning ceremony in Dallas, the former president will be remembered with prayers, a speech by Mayor Mike Rawlings and military jets flying over the city'sDealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot.