November 22, 1963 Trivia Quiz

Answer: As the World Turns

The first reports only said that shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade, and the network immediately returned to the popular soap.

Answer: Sixth

Accused shooter Lee Harvey Oswald was an employee of the Texas School Book Depository. Many witnesses claimed the shots came from the sixth floor while others thought they came from a grassy knoll near Dealey Plaza.

Answer: Parkland

Much controversy would follow later concerning the security at Parkland. Reporters and outsiders apparently had easy access to the hospital, including the Emergency Room, and conspiracy theorists cite several instances of crucial evidence possibly being tampered with or going missing.

Answer: Walter Cronkite

Cronkite could barely speak as he made the announcement and removed his glasses to wipe tears from his eyes. Following the official announcement of the President's death all three major networks suspended their regular program and provided commercial-free coverage of this national tragedy for the next four days. Regular programming resumed on Tuesday, November 26th--the day after the funeral and burial. President Johnson had declared Monday, November 25th a "National Day of Mourning".

Answer: God's

Johnson preceded that statement with "I will do my best. That is all I can do". One of Johnson's first acts after JFK's burial was to appoint a commission headed by Chief Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination.

Answer: Oh no!

Films of the scene show Mrs. Kennedy frantically climbing on the back of the car. Several sources, including her personal Secret Service agent Clint Hill, have stated that she was attempting to get a part of the President's skull that had been blown off by the shot. The most famous of these films was the amateur movie taken by Abraham Zapruder.

Answer: Gerald Ford

Ford later wrote a book on Lee Harvey Oswald called "Portrait of the Assassin". A strong proponent of the "lone assassin" theory, Ford's book offered support to that theory, portraying Oswald as a disturbed man and possible Communist sympathizer. Critics of the Warren Commission, however, blasted Ford's book for ignoring evidence that Oswald may have had ties with the CIA and that he may well have been, as Oswald himself put it, a "patsy".

Answer: A Mannlicher-Carcano

Oswald was believed to have obtained the rifle by mail order, prompting stronger regulations that made it more difficult to do so in the future.

Answer: Three

Several years later strong auditory evidence would suggest that at least four shots were fired, indicating a possible conspiracy. Recordings revealed at least four shots, fired too close together to have come from one shooter, thus giving credence to the conspiracy theory. Defenders of the "lone assassin" theory, however, dismiss the recordings as being of poor quality, claiming any "extra" shots heard are merely echoes of the actual shots.

Answer: Rubenstein

Ruby was owner of a nightclub called the Carousel Club and was well known to the Dallas police, which apparently made it easier for him to gain access when Oswald was transferred.