President Kennedy and PM Macmillan. TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

By Mark McConville

 

IN STARK contrast to the protests that have greeted President Trump incredible images show people lining the streets of London to welcome President John F Kennedy in 1961.

President Kennedy with his wife Jackie and Queen Elizabeth II.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

Stunning pictures show JFK stepping off his plane, his motorcade being cheered by the people of England’s capital city and riding with Prime Minster Harold Macmillan in an open limousine.

TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

Other striking photographs show JFK chatting to a group of young American school children as he leaves the American Embassy in London, chatting to the Prime Minister in Prince and Princess Radziwill’s Buckingham Place home and wife Jackie looking on from the background.

June 4th 1961 – ‘Vast crowds press against a police cordon to wave and cheer President John Kennedy as he rides in an open limousine with British Premier Harold Macmillan in Palace Street, Victoria, tonight.’
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

The visit of President Kennedy and his wife Jackie to London was made on June 4th and 5th 1961 as they attended the christening of Jackie’s niece.

June 4th 1961 – Kennedy and Macmillan address journalists at London Airport.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

Although described as a private visit they dined at Buckingham palace with the Queen and JFK met with the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

Kennedy’s motorcade in London.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com3

 

Donald Trump’s visit to London has been met with huge protests as a huge baby blimp depicting President Trump wearing a nappy has took to the skies in Westminster.

June 5th 1961 – President Kennedy chats to a group of young American schoolchildren when leaving the American embassy.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

The blimp joined tens of thousands of demonstrators marching through the streets of London while protests are also planned at Chequers, Theresa May’s country estate, and in Scotland, where the American leader will arrive on Friday evening after having tea with Queen at Windsor Castle.

TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

John F Kennedy had been inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States of America on January 20, 1961. He was the youngest candidate to be elected President.

US President, John F. Kennedy and British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan made into shop window dummies to boost sales in clothes shops around London, England.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

“My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country,” he said in his inaugural address.

President Kennedy and PM Macmillan.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

“My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

July 23rd 1962 – Drinkers in a pub in Walworth Road, London watch the first live television picture transmitted by satellite (Telstar), a news conference by President John F Kennedy from Wasinghton DC, USA
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

The visit to London proved to be a popular one, with crowds of people lining the streets as they drove through the city.  It had a long lasting impact, after the visit Londoners could keep up with the news regarding the President through television broadcasts, relayed from the US by the communication satellite Telstar, launched on July 10, 1962.

Kennedy waves from a car with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

In January 1963 one enterprising shop window mannequin manufacturer created Kennedy and Macmillan mannequins to boost sales in men’s fashion outlets.

June 4th 1961 – ‘A London policeman peeps in as president John Fitzgerald Kennedy chats with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in the hallway of Prince and Princess Radziwill’s Buckingham Place home. Also in the picture is the president’s wife Jacqueline.’
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. He was riding in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas when Oswald shot him with a sniper rifle.

TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy was pronounced dead about thirty minutes after the shooting; Connally recovered from his injuries.

June 4th 1961 – ‘US President John F. Kennedy with Harold Macmillan and his wife at London Airport’.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

As Oswald was being transferred to Dallas County Jail he was fatally shot in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby.

Londoners swarm Kennedy’s car.
TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

 

After a ten-month investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, that Oswald had acted entirely alone, and that Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald.

TopFoto / mediadrumworld.com

Kennedy was the eighth US President to die in office and the fourth (following those of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and most recent to be assassinated. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson automatically became President upon Kennedy’s death.

 

For more information see www.mediadrumworld.com