The assassination of JFK: As it happened

Editor's note: This story originally ran on the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination. 1960 Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate rehearsal: Walter Cronkite on the air, 1960: And the popular vote ... 84 percent of the precincts counted now ... give Kennedy just a little margin over 50 percent of the vote... Nixon almost 50 percent of the vote. One of the closest elections in our nation's history has been recorded in this year of 1960. Reporter: ...and there's Mrs. Kennedy, the first lady stepping from the plane. Wearing a bright pink suit with a dark fur collar and a matching pink hat, and the president wearing a dark suit. Reporter: She does makes a very striking picture as she clutches the huge bouquet of bright red roses... Reporter: And the president will be riding in the open. ... That car was flown in here last night from Washington... Reporter: And now the ticker tape and uh ... other confetti and such is beginning to flow from the windows and the crowd at our point is surging forward. There is a big cheer going up... Abraham Zapruder film: I was down on this freeway early ... and even the freeway was jammed pack with spectators waiting their chance to see the president as he made his way toward the trade mart ... it appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route ... something I repeat has happened in the motorcade route. Reporter: There has been a shooting ... Parkland Hospital has been advised to stand by for a severe gunshot wound. Cronkite on the air: Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. Cronkite on the air: The first reports say the president, Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting. Walter Cronkite on the air: This is Walter Cronkite in our newsroom. There has been an attempt, as perhaps you know now, on the life of President Kennedy. He was wounded in an automobile driving from Dallas Airport into downtown Dallas, along with Governor Connally of Texas. They've been taken to Parkland Hospital where their condition is as yet unknown. Cronkite on the air: We have not been told their condition. At Dallas, in a downtown hotel room, a group had been gathered to hear President Kennedy and was waiting his arrival. Let's switch down there now where Eddie Barker of KRLD is on the air. Eddie Barker reporting: As you can imagine there are many stories that are coming in now as to the actual condition of the president. One is that he is dead. This cannot be confirmed. Voice of Bob Huffaker | KRLD Radio: President Kennedy is on the inside of Parkland Hospital and two priests have just been sent in to the room with the president. Cronkite on the air: From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern tTme, some 38 minutes ago. [Takes off glasses, pauses.] Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: It was one of the most shocking things I'd ever heard. Frankly, I was very upset and couldn't adjust to it and could hardly believe it in the beginning. Penny Robinson to Charles Kuralt: Nobody could believe it. It's too... there's no words to express what happened at all. Charles Kuralt | CBS News 1963: It's true that there are no words to express it and that feeling is obvious all around us on the streets of Los Angeles. Richard Nixon: Today millions of people throughout the world are trying to find words adequate to express their grief and their sympathy to his family. Man on the street, NYC: We are sorry. Deeply moved over this incident. This is a dark day in the history of America. Edward Kennedy: I do want to say how appreciate both my parents have been for the tremendous outpouring of thoughtfulness and prayers that have come from all Americans from all parts of the country. Dan Rather | CBS News Dallas reporting: These are scenes at a building across the street from the scene where President Kennedy was shot. ... Some empty cartridges have been found in that building. ... Perhaps out of one of those open windows is where the assassin of President Kennedy is believed to have fired the fatal shots. Cronkite on the air: In Dallas— a Dallas policeman just a short while ago was shot and killed while chasing a suspect. Dan Rather reporting: This is 24-year-old Lee H. Oswald. ... Now here is the gun police say was used to kill the president. ... Oswald first was charged with killing the policeman, police say that have at least one eyewitness to that. Oswald: I really don't know what this situation is about. Nobody has told me anything except I'm accused of, uh, murdering a policeman. Reporter: Did you kill the president? Oswald: No, I have not been charged with that. In fact nobody has said that to me yet. The first thing I heard about it was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question. Marguerite Oswald: I spoke a few words to Lee and he says, "Mother don't worry about a thing..." Dan Rather reporting: Mrs. Kennedy, back the way she had come, in an ambulance now which bore her husband's body. Cronkite on the air: We just got word from our reporters out there at the airport ... that Lyndon B. Johnson has been sworn in as the President of the United States. Reporter: President Lyndon Johnson has arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. This is film, or tape, of that arrival. (Background: "Live, live, live!") It is live. It is live, right now. Reporter: This is one of the most unique and tragic moments in the history... Reporter: I'm watching a turnover in government, at the highest office. And now we can see what we believe to be a coffin containing the body of President Kennedy being moved from Air Force One. Reporter: This is a scene at Andrews Air Force Base. With a casket of— carrying the body of President Kennedy is being transferred to an ambulance. Reporter: Behind it comes, Mrs. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.... And now President Johnson is coming down the ramp, out the back door. President Lyndon Johnson: We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best, that is all I can do. I ask for your help ... and God's. George Herman reporting: President John F. Kennedy comes back to the White House for the last time. Cronkite on the air: There will be a particularly poignant time for the Kennedy family next week.The two Kennedy children, uh, both have birthdays next week. John, 3, November the 25th, and Caroline, 6, on November the 27th. An entire nation has almost come to a stop today, uh, in the wake of the horrible news. Cronkite on the air: We reported to you on the arrest of that individual in Dallas. He is being grilled now. He is said to be 24 years old. The name has been given for him by Dallas Police as Lee H. Oswald. Reporter: Has he confessed sir? Has he made a statement? Official: He has not confessed.He has made no statement. Charges of murder have been accepted against him. Dan Rather reporting: Oswald has admitted nothing. After further questioning, he was formally charged with the president's death. That gun is a powerful military rifle, which police found in the building from which the president is believed to have been shot. Dan Rather reporting: Lee Oswald, espouser of leftist causes: an active member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, an avowed admirer of Russia and of Cuba's Fidel Castro, a man who once lived in Russia. Reporter: What did you do in Russia? Oswald: A policeman hit me. Reporter: Chief, do you have any concern for the safety of your prisoner In due of the high feeling among the people of Dallas over the assassination of the president? Police Chief: No, but precautions ... necessary ... precautions will be taken, of course. Harry Reasoner, CBS News, on the air: This is how things stand at this hour. In Washington, it is not long until the time for the transfer of the body of President Kennedy from its repose at the White House to the rotunda of the Capitol where it will lie in state. In Dallas, Lee Oswald, the man accused of the assassination of the president, is to be moved from one jail to another. We will have a direct report. Harry Reasoner on the air: Let us go now to the White House and Robert Pierpoint. Harry Reasoner on the air: We are now switching to Dallas where they are about to move Lee Oswald and where there is a scuffle in the police station... Reporter: We are going to switch now to Bob Huffaker, down in the basement of the courthouse, who is close to the scene. Go ahead, Bob. Bob Huffaker: Lee Harold Oswald has been shot. The situation is now that Lee Harold Oswald has been shot. The man who saw the shot fired, said it was fired by a man wearing a black hat, a brown coat... Harry Reasoner: We have, we got our tape. We have re-racked the video tape that shows that whole scene of confusion. Reporter: And you knew him? Officer: Yes, sir. Bob Huffaker: And he is a resident of Dallas, is he not? Officer: Yes, sir. Bob Huffaker reporting: Here comes Oswald, he, he is ashen and unconscious ... and now the ambulance is coming out ... the ambulance with Lee Harvey Oswald, who was shot. Reporter: It appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route — something, I repeat, something has happened in the motorcade route. Reporter: Parkland Hospital has been advised to stand by for a severe gunshot wound... Reporter: Something is wrong here, something is terribly wrong... Reporter: The seven members of the Warren Commission, headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court... Reporter: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, leaving the White House for the last time. Reporter: Mrs. Kennedy, Caroline, and John ... Reporter: President Johnson has gotten into the car with the Kennedy family. Reporter: President John Kennedy ... his body in the casket moving down Pennsylvania Avenue now, up toward Capitol Hill. Reporter: The line, 40 blocks long ... estimated by police at 500,000. Charles Collingwood | CBS News reporting: So great is the crush outside the Capitol, waiting to get in, that people who have not been in line at 10 o'clock can't possibly go by the coffin before it is borne away at 10 o'clock tomorrow. Reporter: Mrs. Kennedy followed the casket on foot to St. Matthews Church.

Kennedy: It's a pleasure to be here tonight to participate in this program which opens up a series of discussions. ... Is that about the right tone of voice? Man on the street: Someone to do this must be mentally deranged. No clear-thinking human person would ever think of doing something like that.

It has been more than half a century, and so many lifetimes ago. Yet the images from November 1963 remain haunting, blurred into our national consciousness. Sixty years later, CBS News relives that drama, moment by moment, as it unfolded before a world in shock. Richard Nixon: Think I better shave.