The Assassination of JFK

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anyone alive at the time remembers the day President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, on November 22 1963. In this episode, Dan provides a moment-by-moment account of the day that shocked the world and speaks with Jefferson Morley, a former Washington Post journalist who has spent years researching the event to discuss the aftermath of the assassination, the theories, and what the public was never told by the White House and the CIA.

Archive courtesy of NBC.

A version of this episode was first released in November 2021.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, folks. This is an episode we released a few years back. I did have my braces on at the time, so I sound a bit different. I was having some important dental surgery at the time. But it is one of our favorite episodes. So bear with me. And this is the end of the JFK story that we've been exploring on the show this week. So if you're a long-time listener, it is a refresher. You might have heard it before, but it's worth a re-listen. So enjoy. Hi, everybody. Welcome to Dan Snow's history hit. Anyone who was
0:28.3	alive at the time seemed to remember with great clarity where they were when they heard that
0:34.6	John F. Kennedy, the president of the United States, had been shot dead
0:39.0	in Dallas. It's one of those extraordinary waypoints in US 20th century history. He'd been elected
0:47.0	in late 1960, in a very close-run election. He was young, he was charismatic. He was the first Catholic
0:54.1	president of the United States. He seemed to embody He was charismatic. He was the first Catholic president. He was the United
0:55.2	States. He seemed to embody the idealism of a new generation of Americans. Americans that
1:00.3	grown up following the First World War had served often during the Second World War.
1:05.0	And had lived through one of the most extraordinary revolutions in household prosperity in the history of the world. America had launched itself
1:13.9	into a position of global hegemony, extraordinary superpower status, backed up by revolutionary
1:21.6	technology, not least the nuclear technology, but also things like ballistic rockets
1:26.0	that would see humans reach the
1:28.4	moon within a decade, also the beginnings of a computing revolution. He seemed like a new
1:33.9	president from a new generation for a new era of history. On the 22nd of November, 1963,
1:41.9	he was shot dead. In this episode, I'm taking you through a step-by-step account of the assassination.
1:50.0	I'm also going to be interviewing Jefferson Morley.
1:52.2	He's a Washington-based author and veteran journalist.
1:55.5	He's one of the most knowledgeable authorities on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. So it's a hybrid.
2:02.7	It's a mixture of one of my explainers with an interview with a bit of a legend. Let's hear from
2:08.1	Jefferson Morley and me as we take you through one of the most famous days in history.
2:14.3	T-minus 10. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima.
2:19.2	God save the king.
	...

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