Quiz Answers

The historical American event was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Friday, November 22, 1963.

 The cast of characters mentioned were:

1. Ralph Yarborough, U.S. Senator for Texas.  His bitter long-running feud with Governor John B. Connally, which had split the state’s Democratic Party in a pre-election year, was one of the primary reasons for Kennedy’s trip to Dallas.
2. Governor Connally.  Shot while riding in the jump seat of the presidential limousine that led the motorcade through Dallas.  He recovered fully.
3. E.M. (Ted) Dealey, publisher of the Dallas Daily News.  Politically an extreme conservative, a staunch and vocal opponent of the Kennedy administration.
4. Clint Hill, Secret Service Agent.  It was Hill, standing on the running-board of the following secret service car, who climbed aboard the presidential limousine immediately after the  shooting to help Jacqueline Kennedy.
5. Father Oscar Huber, Roman Catholic priest.   Huber administered the last rights to President Kennedy in hospital.
6. Abraham Zapruder, clothing merchant.  Zapruder, watching the motorcade, filmed the presidential limousine as it passed him on Dealey Plaza, the footage proving critical to the Warren Commission’s official investigation.
7. J.D. Tippit, Dallas patrolman.  Shot, an hour after the assassination, by Lee Harvey Oswald whom he had stopped for behaving suspiciously.    
8. Malcolm (Mac) Kilduff, Assistant Press Secretary to President Kennedy.  It was Kilduff who had to announce Kennedy’s death to the press at Parkland Hospital.
9. Jack Ruby, Dallas night club owner.  Shot and killed Oswald in the basement of the Dallas police station two days after the assassination, and became the focus of the many conspiracy theories about the assassination.
10. Jesse E. Curry, Dallas Police Chief.  Heavily criticised for the poor procedures and security associated with Oswald’s arrest and confinement.

As for the places mentioned:

1. Love Field, the Dallas airport that Air Force 1, the presidential plane flew into and from.
2. Dealey Plaza, the site (named after the publishing family) of the Texas Book Depository, from which the shots that killed Kennedy were fired.  (Some would say ‘allegedly fired’.)
3. Stemmons Freeway was the route taken by the presidential limousine after the shooting.
4. Parkland Memorial Hospital was where Kennedy and Connolly were taken for treatment.