On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited Dallas, making the most of a presidential trip ahead of the 1964 presidential election.

The president and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy traveled by motorcade through the city with the convertible top down.

Around 12:30 p.m., the car entered Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. As the car passed in front of the Texas School Board Depository building, shots rang out, wounding Texas Gov. John Connally and striking Kennedy in the head and neck as his wife looked on.

Kennedy was rushed to Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was 46.

Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as 36th president at 2:39 p.m. that day in a ceremony aboard Air Force One.

Kennedy’s killer was identified as Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine. But two days later, after his arrest, Oswald was killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, adding another layer of controversy and mystery to the president’s assassination.

In Alabama, recently targeted by Kennedy after Gov. George Wallace’s refusal to integrate state schools and colleges, residents expressed a mix of shock and grief, according to local news reports. Some people celebrated.

Wallace was sitting on a stage in Haleyville when Kennedy’s death was announced.

“I may have differed with the president on political matters but this is a terrible thing and I pray the next news we hear is good news,” Wallace said.

Former Gov. Robert Bentley said in 2013 that he could vividly recall the chemistry lab he was in, the students he was with and the somber moments and days following the young president’s death. Bentley was 17 in 1963.

“Even though I was not a supporter of President Kennedy – a lot of people in Alabama weren’t – the shooting of the president was a tragic event,” Bentley said. “Whether you agree with the president or not, you honor the office.”

In Birmingham’s Municipal Auditorium, minutes after the assassination, Admiral Ben Morreell stopped in mid-speech as he is addressing American for Constitutional Action.

“Not by bullets or bayonets” Morreell was telling the conservative grassroots organization when he was interrupted and the meeting cancelled, according to archives.

And David Alsobrook, then director at the History Museum of Mobile, told AL.com in 2013 about being a 17-year-old senior at Davidson High School on that grim day. Students began to hear rumors of an assassination attempt, and shortly after they took their seats in an English class, the school’s principal interrupted through the PA system.

“When I recall everything that came after JFK’s assassination — Vietnam, the assassinations of MLK Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the civil rights years, including the Selma March – it’s all a blur,” Alsobrook said. “But Nov. 22, 1963, is still razor sharp in my mind. We had no way of knowing at the time that day happened, we lost our innocence on that day.”