Rick Jervis and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY 10:41 a.m. EST November 22, 2013
Media prepare for a ceremony at Dealey Plaza in Dallas Nov. 22, 2013, marking the anniversary of the assassination of President John F.Kennedy.(Photo: Larry W. Smith/epa)
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DALLAS -- Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago, will once again be in the spotlight Friday, but this time in a solemn, dignified event commemorating the slain president.
About 5,000 tickets were issued for the free ceremony only steps from where the 35th U.S. president was cut down by bullets fired by sniper Lee Harvey Oswald from his perch on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
Bells will toll throughout the city and a moment of silence will be observed at 12:30 p.m., marking the moment when Kennedy was struck.
A large banner of JFK's portrait was erected as a backdrop for the main stage.
Many of the familiar sites from that tragic day are still here. Networks will broadcast from a a location on the Commerce Street plaza, opposite the grassy knoll, site of many assassination conspiracy theories.
The Coalition on Political Assassinations, which usually gathers on the knoll each Nov. 22, will not be allowed to meet at the site this year during the main event. Instead, The Dallas Morning News reports, the group will hold an event at the nearby JFK memorial, then move to the plaza after the ceremony is over.
A pre-event program was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. CT with music by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
The ceremony was organized as a joint event between The President John F. Kennedy Commemorative Foundation and the city of Dallas.
Mayor Mike Rawlings said it was "designed to set a solemn, dignified and understated tone as we commemorate the life, legacy and leadership" of President Kennedy.
The U.S. Naval Academy Men's Glee Club was scheduled to perform as a tribute to Kennedy's military service and there will be an Air Force "missing man" flyover.
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas was scheduled to offer the invocation followed by remarks by the mayor.
Security was particularly tight at the site, with several layers of barricades blocked off the area. Despite a forecast of rain, those attending were told not to bring umbrellas. Organizers planned to hand out ponchos instead.
A live feed of the event was set up for viewing by the general public at three locations in and around downtown Dallas.
The nearby Sixth Floor Museum, which chronicles the assassination and is located on the same floor where Oswald fired on the motorcade, will open from 3 to 8 p.m. CT, after the formal ceremony.
At Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy died, a brief morning ceremony, including the lowering of a flag to half-staff, was scheduled.
Elsewhere in the city, The Texas Theatre, where police captured Oswald, will screen part of the movie War Is Hell, which was showing when Oswald slipped into the audience without paying on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963.
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Media prepare for a ceremony at Dealey Plaza in Dallas Nov. 22, 2013, marking the anniversary of the assassination of President John F.Kennedy.(Photo: Larry W. Smith/epa)
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DALLAS -- Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago, will once again be in the spotlight Friday, but this time in a solemn, dignified event commemorating the slain president.
About 5,000 tickets were issued for the free ceremony only steps from where the 35th U.S. president was cut down by bullets fired by sniper Lee Harvey Oswald from his perch on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
Bells will toll throughout the city and a moment of silence will be observed at 12:30 p.m., marking the moment when Kennedy was struck.
A large banner of JFK's portrait was erected as a backdrop for the main stage.
Many of the familiar sites from that tragic day are still here. Networks will broadcast from a a location on the Commerce Street plaza, opposite the grassy knoll, site of many assassination conspiracy theories.
The Coalition on Political Assassinations, which usually gathers on the knoll each Nov. 22, will not be allowed to meet at the site this year during the main event. Instead, The Dallas Morning News reports, the group will hold an event at the nearby JFK memorial, then move to the plaza after the ceremony is over.
A pre-event program was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. CT with music by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
The ceremony was organized as a joint event between The President John F. Kennedy Commemorative Foundation and the city of Dallas.
Mayor Mike Rawlings said it was "designed to set a solemn, dignified and understated tone as we commemorate the life, legacy and leadership" of President Kennedy.
The U.S. Naval Academy Men's Glee Club was scheduled to perform as a tribute to Kennedy's military service and there will be an Air Force "missing man" flyover.
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas was scheduled to offer the invocation followed by remarks by the mayor.
Security was particularly tight at the site, with several layers of barricades blocked off the area. Despite a forecast of rain, those attending were told not to bring umbrellas. Organizers planned to hand out ponchos instead.
A live feed of the event was set up for viewing by the general public at three locations in and around downtown Dallas.
The nearby Sixth Floor Museum, which chronicles the assassination and is located on the same floor where Oswald fired on the motorcade, will open from 3 to 8 p.m. CT, after the formal ceremony.
At Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy died, a brief morning ceremony, including the lowering of a flag to half-staff, was scheduled.
Elsewhere in the city, The Texas Theatre, where police captured Oswald, will screen part of the movie War Is Hell, which was showing when Oswald slipped into the audience without paying on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963.
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