A dark day in history - 55 years ago
IT was a notable year in history.
In Britain, 1963 was marked by the rise of Beatlemania, the Profumo scandal, the Great Train Robbery, and the Beeching railway cuts.
In the United States, there was Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech - and an event which shook the world.
The assassination of American president John F Kennedy took place on this day in 1963.
Even 55 years on, the events that unfolded in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, continue to fascinate TV viewers, book readers, historians and conspiracy theorists.
And even though the deadly shots rang out on the other side of the world, the impact was felt strongly here on Tyneside.
Firstly, there was the shattering news of JFK’s execution. Then, two days later,
the man accused of the shooting, former marine Lee Harvey Oswald, was himself blasted to death by a smalltime mobster, Jack Ruby.
The fact both events were captured live on TV only added to the pervading feeling of a world spinning out of control.
Older readers will probably remember where they were when they heard the fateful news. That ‘Kennedy moment’ foreshadowed later highprofile losses such as Elvis Presley in 1977, John Lennon in 1980, Princess Diana in 1997, and David Bowie in 2016.
Fifty-five years ago, what was the reaction in Britain and on Tyneside to Kennedy’s assassination?
Dr Martin Farr, Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Newcastle University, says: “There was profound shock. Kennedy was a young, charismatic, popular, president .
You only have to walk down the street to hear how people were affected - when grown men weep Chronicle, 1963
“He had acted with courage during the previous year’s Cuban missile crisis, and earned a great deal of respect among the British people.
“America was our great ally in political and military terms, and now its leader had been assassinated.”
The shooting, of course, was just one of the events which made 1963 such a momentous year.
“1963 was a very important year,” continues Dr Farr. “Here, the country was changing. We were on the cusp of modernism.”
The old order represented by the aristocratic Prime Minister, Alec Douglas Home, was on its way out. He would soon be replaced by a man with a regional accent, Harold Wilson.
The Chronicle, in the days after JFK’s death, reported on the possibility of a Kennedy statue in Washington New Town. In the event, a housing estate would later be name after him. And our editorial at the time talked of “a violent death that has left a desolate void on the international scene.
“The extent to which people in the North East have taken news of the assassination has left them deeply shocked.
“You only have to walk down the street to hear how people were affected by it - and when grown men weep...”