Chronology of
US President Kennedy Assassination

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This document is an attempt to bring various published sources together to present a timeline about US President Kennedy Assassination.

References are numbered in [brackets], which are listed here. A number after the dot gives the page in the source.

Last updated: 2022 August 1.


1948

June 18
  • National Security Council directive 10/2 "gave the highest sanction of the government to a broad range of covert operations" "so planned and executed that... if uncovered the US government can plausibly disclaim any responsibility for them." [9.33,381]

1959

May 6
  • At the Marine base near Los Angeles, California, Lee Harvey Oswald performs rifle shooting for score, scoring 191, one point over the minimum for ranking of "marksman", the lowest ranking for the Marine Corps. The shooting took place with a M-1 rifle under sunny warm conditions with no rain, and a slight breeze. (This score is later referred to as "rather poor shot".) [1.124]
October 31
  • Lee Harvey Oswald goes to the US Embassy in Moscow, leaves his passport, says wants to renounce US citizenship. He tells the embassy his new allegiance is to the USSR, and that he will tell the Soviet officials information about the Marine Corps and his radar operation. [8.46] [9.37,143] [10.149] [12.107]
November 10
  • The FBI's Domestic Intelligence Division places a "flash" notice on the fingerprint card of Lee Harvey Oswald, to be alerted if his fingerprints are detected by the Identification Division. [12.125]
(month unknown)
  • Shortly after arriving in the Soviet Union, Lee Harvey Oswald meets Priscilla Johnson, employee of the US State Department, journalist, CIA agent. [6.68]
November
  • The FBI issues a "FLASH", a "Wanted Notice Card" on Lee Harvey Oswald so that if anyone received information on Oswald, they would alert Espionage Section, Division 5. [9.177]

1960

March 28
  • American Embassy in Moscow reports to US State Department that it had no contact with Lee Harvey Oswald since November 1959 when Lee departed the Metropole Hotel. [12.126]
April 27
  • Lee Harvey Oswald's brother Robert tells FBI Special Agent John W. Fain that neither he nor his mother had any contact with Lee since December 1959. [12.125]
April 28
  • FBI Special Agent John W. Fain interviews Marguerite Oswald. She says her letters to Lee in Russia were returned undelivered. [12.126]
June 3
  • FBI Director Hoover sends a note to the State Department saying "there is a possibility that an imposter is using Oswald's birth certificate." [8.153] [10.409]
September
  • The Marine Corps reserve officially rescinds Lee Harvey Oswald's honorable discharge, downgrading it to "undesirable discharge". [10.171] [12.127]
December 9
  • Ann Egerter, CIA staff member under James Angleton, opens a 201 file on Lee Harvey Oswald. (This is routinely done to closely watch CIA agents suspected of being a counterintelligence risk.) [9.144] [10.164]

1961

January 17
  • US President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his farewell address, including "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." [7.282] [9.xxi]
January 20
  • John Fitzgerald Kennedy swears the Oath of Office, and becomes the 35th President of the USA. As part of his Inaugural Address, Kennedy states hope for peace with the Soviet Union. [4.21] [9.xxi] [13.7]
January 26
  • Marguerite Oswald in Washington, D.C., calls the White House, asking to speak to President Kennedy about her son lost in Russia. [12.127]
February 1
  • US State Department asks the US Embassy in Moscow to enquire about whereabouts of Lee Harvey Oswald, after CIA is informed of concern by Oswald's mother. [10.209] [12.127]

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February 5
  • Lee Harvey Oswald in Minsk sends a letter to Snyder in the US Embassy in Moscow, requesting his passport back to return to the USA, and to "come to some agreement concerning the dropping of any legal proceedings against me". [8.612] [12.128]
February 13
  • Snyder in the US Embassy in Moscow receives Oswald's letter requesting his passport back. [12.128]
March 10
  • In Minsk, Lee Harvey Oswald helps visiting University of Michigan band student Katherine Mallary with English-Russian translation. He tells her he was an ex-Marine, despises the USA, hopes to spend the rest of his life in Minsk. [12.129]
March 11
  • (or March 12) Lee Harvey Oswald in Minsk again writes to the US Embassy in Moscow requesting aid in leaving the USSR. [12.130]
April 4
  • Carlos Marcello enters Immigration and Naturalization Service office in New Orleans for a regular appointment to report as an alien. This time he is arrested, handcuffed, and within 30 minutes put on a plane to be deported to Guatemala. (Marcello had been ordered deported 8 years ago.) [7.286]
April 13
  • The US State Department instructs the embassy in Moscow to return Lee Oswald's passport only in person, after questioning him under oath. [12.130]
May 16
  • Lee Harvey Oswald in Minsk again writes to the American embassy in Moscow, requesting a guarantee he would not "be persecuted for any act pertaining to this case", and, as he is now married to a Russian wife, she must also come to America with him. [12.131]
June 10
  • Consul Snyder at the US Embassy in Moscow gives Lee Harvey Oswald his passport back. [10.209]
July 10
  • Lee Oswald and Marina visit the American embassy in Moscow. John McVicker interviews Marina, Snyder interviews Lee. Snyder returns Lee's passport, stamped valid only for direct travel to the US. [12.140]
July 20
  • At a meeting of the US National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CIA Director Allen Dulles present President Kennedy with their plan for a surprise nuclesr attack on the Soviet Union. Kennedy walks out in the middle of the meeting, saying to Secretary of State Dean Rusk "And we call ourselves the human race." [7.343] [9.xxii]
(month unknown)
  • In response to the Lebanon crisis of 1958, U.S. Strike Command is set up in Florida, designed to provide a swift strike force on short notice. (After the Kennedy assassination, untrue information linking Lee Oswald to Cuba will lead to bombers flying toward Cuba.) [7.295]

1962

March 13
  • The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff delivers a memo (Operation Northwoods) to Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara, suggesting the administration create several "shock incidents" to create "a helpful wave of national indignation" to provide a rationale for invading Cuba. Included: fake attacks on US soldiers stationed in Cuba, other Central American countries, Miami and other Florida cities, Washington DC, and blow up an American ship in Guantanamo Bay. [7.344] [9.96]
March 23
  • President John Kennedy says in a news conference that the US supports the goal of neutral independent Laos. [9.100]
May 9
  • US State Department gets waiver approved by Immigration and Naturalization Service for Marina to be granted a visa to enter the US. [12.149]
May 24
  • Lee and Marina Oswald go to the American embassy in Moscow. They are interviewed, fingerprints taken, Marina receives a medical examination, Marina receives a visa to leave the USSR, and Lee has his passport renewed for travel direct to the US. [12.150] [13.86]
May 25
  • (maybe May 25) Lee and Marina Oswald have dinner at Hotel Leningrad. A man from New Haven, Connecticut, notes the American label on Lee's jacket. Lee responds "You don't know, I might be a spy." [12.151]
May 31
  • FBI headquarters instructs Dallas agents to question Lee Oswald on his arrival. [12.163]
June 1
  • Lee Oswald books three tickets for the SS Maasdam passenger liner from Rotterdam to Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. Lee, Marina, and June leave the Soviet Union by train for Amsterdam, Netherlands a 50-hour trip. [10.215] [12.151] [13.86]
June 13
  • Lee Harvey Oswald, wife Marina, and baby daughter Jane arrive in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, via the Holland-America Line Maasdam ship. Spas T. Raikin, Russian-speaking case worker with Travelers Aid in NYC, contacts Lee to help them make arrangements. (Oswald is not arrested, prosecuted, or confronted for any of his actions.) [8.46] [9.xxiii,46] [10.215] [12.155] [13.87]
June
  • Upon return to the USA from the Soviet Union, Lee Harvey Oswald is debriefed by CIA officer Aldrin Anderson. [7.229]
  • At a disarmament conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Russian Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko offers to the CIA to act as a spy for the USA in Russia. (In 1964, Nosenko will defect to the USA with information about Oswald being of no interest to the KGB.) [12.4]
June 26
  • Lee Oswald in Fort Worth, Texas, FBI office for interview with Agent John W. Fain and B. Tom Carter. Oswald is hostile to their questions. [12.163] [13.101]
July
  • Marina Oswald writes to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, informing them of her new address in Fort Worth, Texas. The letter at the embassy is routed to "Comrad Gerasimov" in Moscow, a part-time intelligence case officer. [10.193] [12.163]
July 23
  • In Geneva, Switzerland, 14 nations, including the USA, sign a Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos. [9.121]
(month unknown)
  • (maybe August?) Lee Oswald sells his mother "Not even Marina knows why I have returned to the United States." [12.171]
  • (Summer) George de Mohrenschildt meets Lee and Marina Oswald. (George has a long history of spy work, several origin and education stories, unknown how he met the Oswalds.) [12.171]
August 16
  • At Lee Oswald's apartment in Fort Worth, Texas, the FBI's John Fain and Arnold J. Brown again question Lee, without success. [12.168] [13.100]
August 20
  • The FBI temporarily closes its case on Lee Harvey Oswald. [12.168]
August 30
  • FBI agent Arnold J. Brown submits his report on his talk with Oswald. John Fein recommends the Oswald case be closed. [13.104]
September
  • At a private meeting with Cuban exile Jose Aleman in Miami, Florida, Mafia boss Santos Trafficante says "Kennedy's not going to make it to the election. he is going to be hit." [10.284]
  • Lee Harvey Oswald begins paid work as agent for FBI, as undercover agent #179, for US$200 per month. (According to Texas Attorney general Waggoner Carr and Texas District Attorney Henry Wade.) [1.368]
October 1
  • George de Mohrenschildt tries to separate Marina and June from Lee, unsuccessfully. [12.175]
October 2
  • President John Kennedy authorizes "limited crop destruction operation" in Phu Yen Province in South Vietnam, in violation of international law. [9.122]
October 7
  • A group of Russians, including George de Mohrenschildt family, visit the Oswald family apartment in Fort Worth, Texas. De Mohrenschildt urges Lee and Marina to move to Dallas. [9.47] [10.229] [12.188]
October 8
  • Lee Harvey Oswald abandons his job in Fort Worth, and travels to Dallas, telling no one where he would be for a month. [10.230] [12.190]
October
  • George de Mohrenschildt talks with CIA Dallas agent J. Walter Moore about whether the CIA had broke into his apartment, if he was being investigated because of lee Oswald, or if Oswald was suspected of being dangerous. Moore replies regarding Oswald that he was a "harmless lunatic" of no concern to the CIA. [12.186]
October 16
  • President Kennedy is informed of photos of Soviet Union medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. [9.xxiv]
October 22
  • President Kennedy makes a television speech to America, announcing the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Kennedy declares a quarantine on shipment of all offensive military equipment to Cuba. [9.xxiv]
November 20
  • The Joint Chiefs of Staff letter to the Secretary of Defence states "The Joint Chiefs of Staff consider that a [nuclear] first-strike capability is both feasible and desirable..." [7.344]
  • Press conference, President John Kennedy announces the Soviet Union agreed to remove from Cuba its nuclear missiles and also its IL-28 bombers. [9.400]
December
  • (Christmas week) A party is held at Katyn Ford's place in Dallas, Texas. George de Mohrenschildt brings Lee and Marina Oswald. Lee spends about three hours talking in English and Russian with Japanese woman Yaeko Okui. (She never divulges what they spoke about.) [12.200]
(month unknown)
  • (late in year) Mafia leader Santos Trafficante says "Mark my word, this man Kennedy is in trouble, and he will get what is coming to him... He is going to be hit." [10.273]

End of 1948-1962. Next: 1963.

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1948-1962 1963 1964-end


A list of references to all source material is available.


Last updated: 2022 August 1.
Copyright © 2019-2024 Ken Polsson (email: ken@kpolsson.com).
URL: http://kpolsson.com/jfk/
Link to Ken P's home page.

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