JACQUELINE BOUVIER & JFK ARE ENGAGED
Hugh & Janet (Bouvier) Auchincloss of Hammersmith Farm & McLean, Virginia announced the engagement of Auchincloss's daughter, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, to Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy today.
Miss Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929 in East Hampton, New York. Jackie attended Vassar College, the Sorbonne in Paris & is a graduate of George Washington University.
The young couple were introduced at a Georgetown dinner party hosted by mutual friend & newspaperman Charles Bartlett.*
*At the time they met, Jackie was the "Inquiring Camera Girl" for the Washington Times-Herald.
The marriage will take place on September 12, 1953 at St. Mary's Church in Newport, R.I.
Jacqueline Bouvier
Inquiring Camera Girl
June 24, 1962
SHRIVER SAYS PEACE CORPS WILL HAVE 5000 VOLUNTEERS
JFK's Peace Corps Director, Sargent Shriver, announced today that the program is expected to have 5000 volunteers in training or in the field by the end of the year.*
*Shriver was JFK's brother-in-law. He once said that the reason he was picked was because the program was not expected to succeed & it would be much easier to fire a relative than a political friend.
Sargent Shriver
Peace Corps Director
Photo by Rowland Scherman
JFK Library Photo
June 24, 1963
JFK & ADENAUER HOLD TALKS IN WEST GERMANY
President John F. Kennedy & German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer held talks today in West Germany.
The two world leaders & their aides discussed disarmament, NATO, & a European-American alliance.
The talks took place at the Palais Schaumburg.
Later at the Villa Hammerschmidt, the official residence of the President of Germany located in Bonn, JFK attended a ceremony for the German peace corps.
JFK said:
"Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintained their neutrality. This is a moral crisis. This is an opportunity & I am confident that the German youth &...the older citizens...will lay a seed which will bring a rich harvest for all in later days."
June 24, 1963
BYRON DE LA BECK INDICTED FOR EVERS MURDER
White supremacist Byron de la Beckwith was indicted today for the murder of Medgar Evers.*
*2 trials in 1964 ended in mistrials. It will take another 30 years for Beckwith to be convicted & imprisoned for the murder of the Mississippi civil rights leaders.
In 1994, new evidence proved that Beckwith had bragged about his role in the murder at a KKK rally.
Byron de la Beckwith
June 24, 1970
KENNEDY MEMORIAL DEDICATED IN DALLAS
At the site of the assassination of the 35th President of the United States, a memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy was dedicated today.
The memorial, designed by Philip Johnson, is an "open tomb" symbolic of the freedom of JFK's spirit.
A marker at the memorial reads:
"The joy & excitement of JFK's life belongs to all men. So did the pain & sorrow of his death."
JFK Memorial
Dallas, Texas
Photo by Jim Bower (2007)
June 24, 1970
SENATE VOTES TO REPEAL GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION
The United States Senate voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution today.
The resolution gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the power "to take all necessary measures" to defend Southeast Asia.
The resolution was originally requested by LBJ after the report that 2 US destroyers were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnamese patrol boats.
The Senate passed the repeal in hopes of limiting President Nixon's war powers.
June 24, 1948
SOVIETS BLOCK ALL LAND ROUTES TO WEST BERLIN
The Soviet Union today blocked all road & rail traffic in & out of West Berlin.
The action, following the collapse 2 days ago of talks between the Soviets, Americans & Brit, is obviously intended to force West Berlin to surrender & make all of Berlin communist.
*The US response will be a massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin. After the failure of the blockade, the Soviets ended it on May 12, 1949.
Berlin Airlift Memorial
Photo by Ingrid Strauch (2002)
