November 22, 1963: The Day, Hour by Hour

President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, at about 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963. He was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital at 1:00 p.m. The rest of this dispatch is the whole day around those two times, built from the Warren Commission Report (chapters 2 and 4), the sworn testimony in its supporting volumes, and the National Archives. All times are Central. Where witnesses disagree by a minute or two, we give the Commission's figure and say that it is an estimate.

Morning: Irving and Fort Worth

About 7:20 a.m. — Lee Harvey Oswald leaves the Paine house in Irving, where his wife was staying, and rides to work with co-worker Buell Wesley Frazier. Frazier testified that Oswald carried a long paper package and said it held curtain rods. They reach the Texas School Book Depository shortly before 8:00 a.m.

About 8:45 a.m. — In Fort Worth, Kennedy speaks to a crowd in the parking lot outside the Hotel Texas, then addresses the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast inside. Shortly after 11:00 a.m. the presidential party leaves for Carswell Air Force Base.

Late morning: Love Field

About 11:40 a.m. — Air Force One lands at Love Field, Dallas, after a flight of roughly thirteen minutes. The President and Mrs. Kennedy greet the crowd along the fence. About 11:55 a.m. the motorcade departs, with Governor John Connally and Mrs. Connally in the same car, along a route published in the Dallas newspapers on November 19.

12:30 p.m.: Dealey Plaza

The motorcade turns from Main onto Houston, then left onto Elm, passing the Depository. At about 12:30 p.m. shots are fired. The Commission concluded that three shots came from the sixth-floor southeast corner window, that the President was struck in the neck and head, and that Governor Connally was wounded. The car accelerates toward Parkland Memorial Hospital.

About 12:31 to 12:32 p.m. — Dallas patrolman Marrion Baker runs into the Depository with building superintendent Roy Truly. On the second floor Baker meets Oswald in the lunchroom, gun drawn; Truly identifies him as an employee and they move on. Both men described the encounter in sworn testimony. The Commission estimated that Oswald left the building by about 12:33 p.m.

12:36 to 1:00 p.m.: Parkland, and across town

About 12:36 p.m. — The presidential car reaches Parkland. Doctors work on the President in Trauma Room One. About 12:40 p.m., Oswald boards a city bus on Elm Street, which stalls in traffic. He gets off, and at about 12:47 to 12:48 takes a taxi driven by William Whaley, who testified to the ride. He reaches the Beckley Avenue rooming house around 1:00 p.m.; housekeeper Earlene Roberts said he stayed only a few minutes.

1:00 p.m. — President Kennedy is pronounced dead. At 1:33 p.m. acting press secretary Malcolm Kilduff makes the announcement at the hospital.

President John F. Kennedy died at approximately one o'clock Central Standard Time today here in Dallas. — Malcolm Kilduff, Parkland Memorial Hospital, 1:33 p.m.

1:15 to 1:50 p.m.: Oak Cliff

About 1:15 p.m. — Patrolman J.D. Tippit is shot and killed near Tenth Street and Patton Avenue in Oak Cliff. Several witnesses saw the gunman or saw him running away; the Commission concluded it was Oswald. About 1:50 p.m., after a shoe-store manager reports a man slipping into the Texas Theatre without paying, police arrest Oswald in the theatre after a struggle. (The full Oak Cliff sequence is in Dispatch 05, "Eighty Minutes".)

Afternoon: a new President

About 2:00 p.m. — The President's body is taken from Parkland to Love Field. At 2:38 p.m., aboard Air Force One, U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes swears in Lyndon B. Johnson as the 36th President, with Mrs. Kennedy beside him. Cecil Stoughton's photograph of the moment is held by the LBJ Presidential Library. The plane takes off minutes later for Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.

Evening and night: the charges

Through the afternoon and evening, Oswald is questioned at Dallas police headquarters. He denies both killings. At about 7:10 p.m. he is formally charged with the murder of Officer Tippit. In the early hours of November 23 he is charged with the murder of the President. Two days later, on Sunday, November 24, he is shot by Jack Ruby in the headquarters basement, and no trial ever takes place.

How exact are these times?

Some are fixed by documents, such as the 1:00 p.m. death and the 2:38 p.m. oath. Others, like the time Oswald left the Depository or the exact minute Tippit was shot, are reconstructions the Commission built from witness estimates, police radio logs and its own timed re-enactments. We have marked those with "about". The room uses the same method: a time is a clue only once you know where it came from.

Sources: Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (1964), chapters 2 and 4; Warren Commission Hearings, testimony of Buell Wesley Frazier, Marrion L. Baker, Roy S. Truly, William W. Whaley and Earlene Roberts; National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection; LBJ Presidential Library.