Where did you first learn about JFK's assassination?
 

50 years ago today, President John F. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Most, if not all of us on this forum were born well after this event given that TMNT was even conceived until 20 years after this. That said, many parents of us fans really felt this event hard, similar to my generation and 9/11 that represented a general end of innocence, though with 9/11 there was terrorism in the '90s before it (including an attack at the WTC in 1993), so I feel in retrospective that JFK's assassination caused a larger paradigm shift than any other event. It sowed the seeds of the '60s/'70s social revolution.

For me, it was the 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire" where I got my first reference, with the "JFK Blown Away" line at the end of the fourth verse. I couldn't really remember the 25th anniversary in 1988 being just 3 3/4 years old, though some of you older fans may have. I then read it in history, but felt that I didn't get the "full" perspective until I visited JFK's presidential library in 2000. So for you, where did you learn about this historic event?

My dad told me....

I think I remember to have heard from my parents about JFK's assassination. Although I was a child, I can remember how they talked about it. The occasion could be a media report, the assassination was maybe 20 years ago at that time. In any case, it was the first time I've heard of a murder of a famous person. It is obviously memorable.

TV or school.

I learned about it in school because I wasn't born yet. My mom was in sixth grade though when it happened.

School...

Also, I believe ther were a lot of precursory stuff that led to the assasination so, like 9/11, there was signs that were missed. Work on civil right for one.....and the cold war stuff like Bay of Pigs.

School....

JFK's dead? Damn throw some spoiler tags on that.

I was in my last year of college and I was home because of holidays.

Yeah there are some who believe people in the government wanted him dead.

I had to have been in the 2nd grade or so. Of course this was in the early 90's and he had been gone for quite some time, but I still remember being shocked that someone actually got close enough to kill a president. This thread is making me want to dust off 11-22-63 by Steve King btw. Yeah it's fiction but a great novel.

Guess we'll never know why it happened. Personally, I think Ozwald was just a nut with a gun who got lucky. The idea that someone in government wanted him assassinated also makes sense. I'd certainly not rule that out since there have been a tun of corrupt individuals in our government over the years. Listening to what others have to say is one of my favorite passtimes so I think I'll post this and check back later.