Today is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It is fascinating to consider some of the historical figures who outlived him. The point here is not to satisfy a morbid curiosity, but to make a point about history. "The past is never dead," William Faulkner wrote, "It's not even past." Memories of the past shape current events, and people who took part in historic events often live long enough to reshape those memories.
Just hours before he died, Kennedy called former vice president John Nance Garner (who served under Franklin Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941) to wish him a happy 95th birthday. Here are other major figures who were still alive on the fateful day:
- Winston Churchill (d. 1965)
- Charles deGaulle (d. 1970)
- Herbert Hoover (d. 1964)
- Harry Truman (d. 1972)
- Dwight Eisenhower (d. 1969)
- Douglas MacArthur (d. 1964)
- Gen. Bernard Montgomery (d. 1976)
- Adm. Chester Nimitz (d. 1966)
- Hellen Keller (d. 1968)
- Margaret Sanger (d. 1966)
- Upton Sinclair (d. 1968)
- Norman Thomas (d. 1968)
- John Steinbeck (d. 1968)
- Bernard Baruch (d. 1965)
- Joseph P. Kennedy (d. 1969)chu
