On December 12, 1963, a vinyl long-playing record (“LP”) called
John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Memorial Album set a record for
album sales. A total of 4 million copies sold in the first six days
of its release.

The album included recordings of some of Kennedy’s most
memorable speeches, as well as memorial tributes to the
president broadcast in the aftermath of his assassination on 
November 22, 1963. The recordings included excerpts from his
inaugural address and his campaign debates with Richard Nixon
as well as highlights from speeches on a variety of topics.

Each copy of the album cost 99 cents and the proceeds went to
the Joseph Kennedy, Jr., Foundation for Mental Retardation.

John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock group that transformed
popular music in the 1960s, was shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New
York City. 

The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment
building when Mark David Chapman (below) shot him four times at
close range with a .38-caliber revolver. Lennon, bleeding profusely,
was rushed to the hospital but died en-route. Chapman had received
an autograph from Lennon earlier in the day (above) and voluntarily
remained at the scene of the shooting until he was arrested by
police.

For a week, hundreds of bereaved fans kept a vigil outside the
Dakota–Lennon’s apartment building–and demonstrations of
mourning were held around the world.

New York City police hold spectators behind barricades the
day after former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed in
front his residence at the Dakota in New York. (AP)

On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed
a special commission to investigate the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy, which had occurred a week earlier,
on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

Johnson issued an Executive Order appointing the President’s
Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy which
became referred to as the Warren Commission, after its leader,
Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Gerald Ford (left) looks on as Chief Justice Earl Warren
presents the Commission’s report to President Lyndon
Johnson.

TIM MAGUIRE

CBS-TV anchorman Walter Cronkite as he removes his
glasses and prepares to announce the death of President
John F. Kennedy.