Key questions over JFK assassination

• What is the official version of events?

President Kennedy was with his wife Jacqueline in Texas. They were travelling through Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22 1963, in a black open-top limousine, waving at crowds. Also in the car was Texas governor John Connally and his wife Nellie. JFK had been in the city ahead of the start of his re-election campaign.

At 12.30pm, three shots rang out. Two bullets hit Kennedy in the head and neck. His death was announced at 1.33pm. Investigators found the shots came from the Texas School Book Depository.

Within hours Lee Harvey Oswald, 24, was charged with killing the President and police officer JD Tippit. He never had the chance to give his version of events as he was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while in police custody on November 24.

An official inquiry, the Warren Commission set up by President Johnson, determined that Oswald acted alone. It also found that Ruby was not part of a bigger plot or cover-up.

Another later inquiry, by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, found that Kennedy “was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy” and that there was a “high probability that two gunmen fired”.

This fuelled myriad theories about who was ultimately behind the President’s death.

How does his legacy fuel conspiracy theories? Kennedy’s truncated presidency is remembered for his handling of the ongoing nuclear threat, civil rights and the space race. Throughout JFK’S election

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campaign and his time in the White House, he faced the threat of nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union, which culminated in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuba wanted Soviet nuclear missiles on the island to deter future invasions. It was seen by many as a masterclass in negotiations on Kennedy’s part when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to retreat.

• What is in the newly released files?

It is likely to take experts and historians weeks to scour them for significant pieces of information. However, documents from thenfbi director J Edgar Hoover reveal that the Soviet Union feared they would be blamed for putting Oswald up to assassinating Kennedy, and that a threat had been made to kill Oswald the night before he was shot.