Nov 20, 2012 1 min read

Amid all the turkey and trimmings Thursday, many Americans of a certain age will likely pause for a minute and remember what they were doing almost a half-century ago, on Nov. 22, 1963.

They’ll remember where they were when they heard the first bulletins from Dallas, and remember how they felt when they heard that President John F. Kennedy had been cut down by an assassin on his way to a luncheon. He was only 46 years old.

Kennedy’s killing was a national scar on a par with the Pearl Harbor attack and, later, 9/11. It’s also been one of our longest-running whodunits, with experts of varying degrees of skill and credibility arguing ad infinitum whether Kennedy was murdered as a result of a wide-ranging conspiracy or merely by a lone gunman who longed to be a grand actor on history’s stage.

Given the time that’s elapsed, no one is ever likely to know with certainty. What we do know, though, is that Kennedy’s death remains an event unique in its ability to evoke both sorrow and intrigue.