celebrity presenters and performers. it was quite an evening. see it for yourself. cnn heroes an all-star tribute next sunday, december 1st at next sunday, december 1st at 8:00 p.m. eastern. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com in the average man's life there are two or three emotional experiences burned into his heart and his brain. and no matter what happens to me, i'll remember november 22nd as long as i live. >> there has been an attempt on the life of president kennedy. >> they are combing the floors of the texas school book depository building to find the assassin. >> i'm just a patsy. >> oswald has been shot at point-blank range fired into his stomach. police are working on the assumption that os ward's murder was to shut him up. >> elements of a central intelligence agency killed john kennedy.

>> the story has been suppressed, witnesses have been killed. we have a right to know who killed our president and why he died. >> i stand here tonight on what was once the last frontier. the pioneers gave up their safety and sometimes their lives to build our new west. beyond that frontier, our uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered province of ignorance and prejudi prejudice. but i believe that the times require imagination and courage. i'm asking each of you to be pioneers towards that new frontier.

in dallas preparations were under way for extraordinary police protection when the president should arrive. >> do you anticipate any trouble on the president's arrival? >> because of what has happened here previously we would be foolish not to anticipate some trouble. really i don't anticipate any violence. >> here comes air force number one, the president's plane now touching down as mrs. kennedy and the crowd yells and the president of the united states. i can see his suntan all the way from here. >> looking at how things actually went, it wasn't just a trip to dallas, it was a political trip preparing for the 1964 elections. >> shaking hands now with the

dallas governor and mrs. connally. >> it was whether kennedy could use his charisma and influence to get all the squabbling democrats in texas to come together before the election the next year. >> here comes the president now. in fact, he's not in him limousine. he's departed the limousine and he is reaching across the fence shaking hands. >> in those days everybody could get a lot closer to the president. i was standing behind mrs. kennedy and i saw a hand reach through the chain link fence and break off one of the red roses. >> thousands of children now swarming trying to get over the fence. the dallas police trying to keep them back. this is great for the people, and makes the eggshells even thinner for the secret service whose job it is to guard the man. >> the trip had gone terrifically well in texas. pretty hard to write a script for it going any better. >> thousands will be on hand for that motorcade now which will be

downtown dallas. >> a number of my classmates were gone. the were at the parade. my father had been invited to have lunch with kennedy at the trade center. there was a mood, a climate of excitement. >> the speech of president kennedy at the dallas trade mart will be broadcast by 570 radio. stay tuned for the president's dallas speech at the trade mart on 570 radio. ♪ yeah big boss man won't you help me when i call ♪ ♪ well you ain't so big you just taller than us all ♪

>> this bulletin just into the studio. three shots were fired at the motorcade of president kennedy in downtown dallas. >> police radios are carrying that the president has been hit. >> parkland hospital has been advised to stand by for a severe gunshot wound. >> this is walter cronkite in our news room. and there has been an attempt on the life of president kennedy. >> just turn the mike on. i can't hear you, johnny. do you want me to move back a little bit? is this all right now? ladies and gentlemen, i'd like to introduce to you the chief cameraman and assistant news director of wfaa television. this is burt ship. would you tell the people

exactly what you know as of this point? >> i was standing at the trade mart awaiting his arrival there. all of a sudden, we saw them approaching. the didn't slow down. as a matter of fact, the were going 70, 80 miles per hour past us. and then i jumped in the police car and went to parkland. these two men come running in one of them had a big large machine gun and the was hauling stretchers and cots and everything. and the governor the brought him in first. >> what happened after that? >> the president came in behind him. >> albert thomas, democrat of texas, is standing outside the corridor of the emergency room, said he's been told the president was still alive but in very critical condition. >> the president has not arrived here. a group of secret servicemen and other officials is gathered where the president normally would enter and discussing heatedly with one another some

subject or other. of course we have no idea what. >> now here's an announcement from the platform. mr. eric johnson with an announcement. >> it is true that our president and governor connally have been shot. we shall tell you as much as we know as soon as we know anything. honestly? no way did i think a tablet was gonna be a good deal. you're talking to the guy who hasn't approved a new stapler purchase in three years. but then i saw the new windows tablet, with a real keyboard, usb port, and full office. it's a tablet that works for work. plus, it's got apps and games, for after hours, of course.

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because our competency-based curriculum gives you skills you can apply immediately, to move your career forward. to your point "c." capella university. start your journey at capella.edu. well, did you know that just one sheet of bounce outdoor fresh gives you more freshness than two sheets of the leading national store brand? who knew? so, how do you get your bounce? with more freshness in a single sheet. a gentleman just walked in our studio that i am meeting for the first time as well as you. may i have your name please,

sir? >> my name is abraham zapruder. >> would you tell us your story please, sir? >> i got out about a half hour earlier to get a good spot to shoot some pictures. my 5-year-old boy and myselves were on the grass there on palmer street. i asked joe to wave to him. joe waved and i waved. and -- >> that's all right, sir. >> as he was waving back, the shot rang out and he slumped down in his seat. >> then up all of a sudden governor connally grabbed his stomach and laid over to the side. and another one it was just all so fast and president kennedy reached up and grabbed -- looked like grabbed his ear and blood just started gushing out. >> [ inaudible ] >> i didn't see any person fire the weapon. >> you only heard it. >> i only heard it. and i look up and saw a man running up this hill. >> if it's a conspiracy, not

only the president was hit, the governor was hit, who knows if the next shot would have been for lyndon johnson? johnson's car pulls into the emergency bay at parkland hospital. four agents reach in and the grab johnson and pull him out and start to run him down one corridor around looking for a safe place. >> mr. johnson, his whereabouts are being kept secret for security reasons. if anyone knows where mr. johnson is, it is not us at this moment. >> there was a signal moment in our cultural history. suddenly it occurred to us the right thing to do is to turn on television. >> reports continued to come in but in a confused and fragmentary fashion. >> president kennedy has been give an blood transfusion at parkland hospital here in dallas in an effort to save his life. >> it was odd. because there were no commercials. it was just a continuous experience. >> two priests have entered the

emergency room at parkland hospital where he rests after the assassination attempt which now was about a half hour ago. >> what are your feelings right now, ma'am? >> i am absolutely shocked, stunned. we have the same birthday. i'm just crazy about him. >> who would want to shoot the president? what did he do? he's been doing so much for the country. someone goes ahead and shoots him? >> a flash from dallas. two priests who were with president kennedy say he is dead of bullet wounds. this is the latest information we have from dallas. i will repeat with the greatest regret, two priests who were with president kennedy say he has died of bullet wounds. >> malcolm kildovv, the assistant president secretary, was filling in for the regular

press secretary. then he had to draw himself up to give the most fateful announcement that a press secretary might have ever had to give. >> all the cameras were rolling. and i remember he put his fingers like this on the desk and pressed very hard to stop his hands trembling. >> president john f. kennedy died at approximately 1:00 central standard time today here in dallas. he died of a gunshot wound in the brain. i have no other details regarding the assassination of the president. >> the people standing here are stunned just as all of us are beyond belief. but president of the united

states is dead. >> all over the world, people are going to remember all their lives what the were doing when the first heard that president kennedy had been killed. >> the crowds are standing around in silence and sorrow in the rain. the strange thing is, you don't even notice it's raining. and if you do notice you don't care. >> i just can't believe it. i feel like someone in my own family has died. i just can't believe it. >> ma'am? >> like a daze. you don't know what's going on. why? why did it happen? who would have done such a thing is the question. >> in the first minutes and hours, chaos and confusion was radiating out from the scene itself. it was very pervasive. >> secret service agents thought the gun fire from an automatic

weapon fired possibly from a grassy knoll. >> i saw some police run up this grassy slope. i thought they're chasing a gunman. i ran with them. >> the report is that the attempted assassins we now hear was a man and a woman. >> i got to the top, looked around, and policeman went over the fence so i went over the fence, too. there was nothing there. >> a television news man said he looked up just after the shot was fired and saw a rifle being withdrawn from a fifth or sixth floor window. >> it was originally thought that the shots came from in here. now it's believed that the shots came from this building here. >> police officers running back toward the texas school book depository building. they are going to continue searching in that building for the would-be assassin of the president. >> central downtown dallas is in a virtual state of siege. they are combing the floors of the texas book depository building in an effort to find the suspected assassin. >> in the building on the sixth

floor we found an area near a window that had been partially blocked off by boxes of books, and also the three spent shells that had apparently been fired from a rifle. >> lieutenant just came out of that building with a british 303 rifle. >> it was a 7.65 mauzer. >> high powered japanese rifle of high caliber. >> a 3030 rifle. >> much of the first things you hear are going to be wrong. and to some degree, you are constantly trying to separate out what seemed to be a fact. >> in dallas, a dallas policeman just a short while ago was shot and killed while chasing a suspect. >> j.d. tippit, a good experienced police officer, was shot three times in the chest in the oak cliff section of dallas. then the manager of a shoe store saw the suspect walk into the

texas theater. >> someone has been arrested in one of the downtown theaters. the don't know if it was the man who shot the policeman or the person who actually shot president kennedy. >> police suddenly jumped this man and started to drag him out of the theater, hustled him out to the car as the crowd broke and started to maul the police officers and grab this man trying to run with him. the shouted "murderer" and the officers hustled him into the car and and ran away just as fast as the could. >> as we mentioned a short while ago, a number of arrests have been made in dallas in the wake of president kennedy's death. we have scenes of one of those arrests in the downtown area. this was just after a dallas policeman was shot in the vicinity of a downtown movie house. [ overlapping speakers ] >> as he approached me, the man was reacher for a pistol in his

right hand. as he reached for his pistol i grabbed him along with two or three other officers. >> what did he say to you after he was arrested? >> he just said, this is it. it's all over with now. for all those who sleep too hot or too cool,

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this is a picture of him. he probably does not look exactly like this now after he's been questioned. that's lee oswald. >> the president is shot. and a police officer is shot. then someone named lee harvey oswald is arrested. oswald may be a suspect in the

assassination. who is he? >> lee oswald of dallas, a former marine who spent some time in russia, who at one time had applied for soviet citizenship. >> the description that we have of the suspect in oak cliff was similar to the description we had and the man we were looking for as the assassin. but at that time we had not been able to connect the two in any way. >> down there in this third floor corridor a crowd of cameramen, reporters, wait for a possible appearance of the man accused of killing president kennedy and a dallas police officer. >> a great deal of confusion. mr. oswald is put through the door. i don't know if you saw him. oswald lives at 1026 north meckley. he's an employee of a book binding firm in the building from which the police and secret servicemen believe the president was shot today.

>> mrs. kennedy, accompanied the body in an ambulance from the hospital to the airport where it will be flown back to washington. >> the wanted everyone out of the emergency room. the hospital completely on the first floor there. and the came out and told us that we would have to help remove the remains into a casket. >> lyndon johnson had ordered that the body be brought immediately to air force one. so there was a little tug-of-war. it almost shook the crucifix off of the top of the coffin as the were trying to get that coffin out of the hospital. >> took him out and put him into the hearse. and one of the secret servicemen, about two or three of them got into the hearse and just drove off and left the rest of us standing there. >> vice president johnson is expected to be sworn in as president aboard an airliner before flying back to the

nation's capitol. >> not everyone realized that johnson was already the president because he in fact had taken the oath in january '61, the same oath the president takes. >> johnson wanted to show the american people that the government was functioning without interruption. and also perhaps he wanted to show that his predecessor's family bore him no ill will for the assassination. >> lyndon baines johnson is flying back to washington to take the reins of government, at which time president johnson will have to take into his hands the reins of the most powerful nation in the world. >> we think november 22nd, 1963, as a date when the president was killed. but it was also a day when a president was created.

>> is there any doubt in your mind, chief that, oswald is the man who killed the president? >> i think this is the man who killed the president, yes. >> is there any evidence that anyone else may have been linked with oswald to this shooting? >> at this time we don't believe so. i don't know what this is all about. [ overlapping speakers ] >> sir? >> did you shoot the president? >> i work in that building. naturally if i work in that building, yes, sir. [ overlapping speakers ] >> did you shoot the president? >> no, they're taking me in because of the fact that i lived in the soviet union. i'm just a patsy. >> did you shoot the president? >> this is room 317, homicide bureau here at the dallas police station. as you see, they are bringing the weapon allegedly used in the assassination of president john f. kennedy this afternoon at 12:30 here in dallas.

>> 6.5 made in italy in 1940. >> police have traced the rifle purchased in chicago by mail order to oswald. he bought it under the alias of a.heidel. nyd experts have established that the handwriting on the purchase order was in fact made by oswald at the price of $12.78, the life of the president of the united states apparently was bought. >> in the wake of the kennedy assassination, the dallas policemen were committing all their resources into trying to solve the crime. [ overlapping speakers ] >> on the other hand, the were ill-equipped to handle this tsunami of reporters. >> well, i was questioned by a judge. however, i protested at that time that i was not allowed legal representation.

>> in bringing oswald out, the were of course doing something that you would never see happen today. but the were trying to cooperate with the press with the understanding that there would not be questions shouted at him. >> did you kilt president? >> no, i have not been charged with that. in fact, nobody has said that to me yet. the first thing i heard about was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question. [ overlapping speakers ] >> what did you do in russia? >> a policeman hit me. >> at 1:35 this morning, a complaint was read. it charged that quote lee harvey oswald did voluntarily and with malice aforethought, kill john f. kennedy by shooting him with a gun end quote. following the reading of the

complaint, oswald said "that's ridiculous." >> within hours of the assassination it was very obvious to virtually everyone in dallas law enforcement that oswald had killed kennedy. >> chief, can you tell news summary what directly links oswald to the killing of the president? >> well, the fact that he was on the floor where the shots were fired from immediately before the shots were fired, the fact that he was seen carrying a package to the building, the fact that -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> yesterday morning. >> after the shooting in dealey plaza, oswald was the only employee at the book depository that fled the building. 45 minutes later he shoots and kills officer j.d. tippit. half hour later at the texas theater he resisted arrest by pulling his gun on the arresting officer. >> during 12 hours of interrogation by the dallas police department over the

weekend, he told one provable lie after near. >> did you buy that rifle? >> i emphatically deny these charges. >> within a day or so thereafter when the discovered what a complete nut this guy was, the were satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that oswald had acted alone. >> there's only one thing they can tell you without going into the evidence that this case is cinched, that this man killed the president. no question in my mind about it. >> we plan to transfer this man not tonight. the van will be here by no later than 10:00 in the morning, why, that will be early enough. >> chief, do you have any concern for the safety of your prisoner in view of the high feeling among the people of dallas of the assassination of the president? >> no. but precautions will be taken of course. but i'm not -- i don't think that the people will try to take the prisoner awa