November 22, 1963
As promised in the last post, here is coverage of the John F. Kennedy assassination. There are no local photos but the mythology that has since surrounded the event makes real time coverage interesting reading. Click on the newspaper pages to view a larger image.
There were trivial stories, like the jinx that all presidents elected in 20 year intervals died in office since 1840. Ronald Reagan broke the streak by surviving an assassination attempt. (Gerald Ford survived two attempts but his story won’t fit the framework of this trivia.)
As the days pass more questions come to light and by the time the president is buried there are front page stories headlined “Was there a plot?Investigations start” and “Clouds of suspicion, criticism over Dallas”.
The last story was datelined from London, papers overseas were quicker to look for a plot rather than the lone gunman stories circulated in the United States.
Lastly an apology to the loyal Photos From the Vault readers, I have not been able to post as often last week due to a combination of vacations, sick days, spot news and training new folks. The goal is give you three posts a week but it may be less than that for the next couple of weeks while we work on getting things back in stride.
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Was there a late edition of the T-T that day? I seem to remember a big headline but a very brief story. The shooting would have been around 10 a.m. our time–I was in sixth grade at Branch School in Arroyo Grande
Hi Jim G. Thanks for the comment.
The issue is not marked as an extra. They may have re-plated during the press run. When I started here in the early 1980′s, 11:30 am was the latest the front page could be remade before the presses rolled at noon. If they stop the presses and re-plate, early editions sent to the corners of the county could look different than the final edition seen here from the microfilm. In the 1960′s they were using a slower more cumbersome hot lead process. But with a story of this importance they would have made every effort to get the most current information onto the street.