LibGuides Home: History Day Previous Topics: Kennedy, John F.

John F. Kennedy

This page covers only previous History Day topics, and is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to President John F. Kennedy

See also: additional topics in History Day guides and Connecticut State Library (CSL) general guides.

Space - History Day History Day page for previous topics. Contains resources that may be of help with future topics.
Cold War - History Day History Day page for previous topics. Contains resources that may be of help with future topics.
Vietnam - History Day History Day guide for previous topics. Contains resources that may be of help with future topics.

Other Institutions

These are institutions not listed under a specific topic, and tend to have broader coverage of te topic.

Presidents - About the White House
White House site's guides to the U.S. Presidents.
Scroll to specific President and click image/link.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

JFK and the Space Race

Suggested search terms
- Space race -- History
- Sputnik satellites
- Space race -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Space race -- Soviet Union -- History -- 20th century
- Astronautics -- Soviet Union -- History
- Aeronautics -- Research -- United States -- History
- Project Apollo (U.S.) -- History
- Manned space flight -- History
- United States -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union
- Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- United States
- Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963
- United States -- Politics and government -- 1961-1963
Challenge to Apollo [microform] : the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945-1974 FedDoc Fiche NAS 1.21:2000-4408
Read you loud and clear!" : the story of NASA's spaceflight tracking and data network - catalog record has details about the contents. FedDocs NAS 1.21:2007-4233
Southern Connecticut State University Forum on the 50th Anniversary of Sputnik / [produced by] CT·N StLib CT·N DVDs--Level 5B CT·N 9761
100 years of flight : a chronology of aerospace history, 1903-2003 TL515 .W526 2003
Looking backward, looking forward : forty years of U.S. human spaceflight symposium
America faces Russia; Russian-American relations from early times to our day (1950) E183.8.R9 B3
From Sputnik to Minerva [electronic resource] : education and American national security
Spaceflight revolution : NASA Langley Research Center from Sputnik to Apollo StLib Federal Documents NAS 1.21:4308

NASA's First A : Aeronautics From 1958 to 2008
Call Number: Online
Publication Date: 2013
Online access through our catalog.

Selected Websites

NASA History Program
Site: "The NASA History Program was first established in 1959 (a year after NASA itself was formed) and has continued to document and preserve the agency's remarkable history through a variety of products. Dr. Roger D. Launius, former NASA Chief Historian, wrote an excellent historiographic article about the history of the NASA History Division itself."

Selected Databases. Others may be of help.

suggested terms: Space race; sputnik; specific names of rockets

Other terms used during the time period being studied

NewspaperARCHIVE.com : Connecticut
Historical newspaper database covering over 100 newspaper titles from cities and towns in Connecticut from 1786 to 2005. You may find newspaper articles, births, deaths, and more with browse by location, date and publication.
Congressional Legislative & Executive Publications
Public policy issues from Congressional Research Service. Coverage: CRS reports, 1916 - ; Committee Prints, 1830 -. Updated continuously. National and international.
Hartford Courant (1764-1998)
Newspaper. Coverage: Access to 1764 - 1998 is a separate subscription provided by the Connecticut State Library and requires a CT State Library card.
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) This link opens in a new window
The CGP is the finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online. Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general key word, or click on "Advanced Search" for more options.
The catalog offers you the option to find a nearby Federal Depository Library that has a particular publication or that can provide expert assistance in finding and using related U.S. government information. Click on the title of interest from your search results list. Then click on the Locate in a Library link within the displayed record.
New York Times (1851-2019) with Index (1851-1993)
Historical New York Times with Index.Coverage: Full-text: 1851-2019. Index: 1851-1993.
ProQuest Congressional
Comprehensive index and selected full-text source for Congressional publications. Coverage: 1819-
U.S. Documents Masterfile: 1774-2023
Find U.S. Federal government information from 1744 to present that aggregates foundational governmental document indexes and current collections to create a single index to U.S. government publications. Many collections include links to full text. Includes GPO and non-GPO distributed publications.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980
Reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Coverage: 1817-1980. For online content beyond 1980, try ProQuest Congressional
U.S. Federal Agency Library (HeinOnline)
Official case law of some of the most important United States government institutions. Coverage: Varies, earliest is 1894.

Assassination - JFK

Assassination

Books, Documents, etc.

These are only some suggestions. Search our library catalog, digital collections, and databases for additional resources.

While preference is given to online resources that students may access from home or school, many of the federal documents may be available in print at the Connecticut State Library (CSL).

Warren Commission Report and Hearings
Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
Warren Commission - Introduction (NARA)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) page with information about the Warren Commission, as well as links to the text.

Databases

John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection
HeinOnline has organized and indexed the recent released documents from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This collection consists of more than 72,000 volumes, including FBI, CIA, and other government agency materials. Also find supplemental material such as books, hearings, other related works, and scholarly articles on the topic.
ProQuest Congressional
Comprehensive index and selected full-text source for Congressional publications. Coverage: 1819-

Other Institutions

President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection
GPO GovInfo: "The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection includes a recording of conversations between various individuals in Washington and Air Force One pilots and officials on board during the flight from Dallas to Andrews Air Force Base following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. This collection also includes the Warren Commission Report and 26 hearing volumes. The Warren Commission was created by President Lyndon Johnson and chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate President Kennedy's assassination."
The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (NARA)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) central location for all federal agency assassination-related material, as per PL 201-526 (106 STAT 3443). There are links to research help and finding aids, with additional helpful links on the page describing the processing. Highlights the most recently released records.
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U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): "John F. Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1963. Almost 30 years later, Congress enacted the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. The Act mandated that all assassination-related material be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The resulting Collection consists of more than 5 million pages of assassination-related records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts (approximately 2,000 cubic feet of records). Most of the records are open for research."

Release of Records

President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 was passed unanimously in 1992, and requires "all records previously withheld either in part or in full should be released on October 26, 2017, unless authorized for further withholding by the President of the United States." (NARA JFK Assassination Records Processing Project, https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/processing-project). On October 26, 2017, President Trump released "Presidential Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies", which provided an additional six months for agencies to release withheld records. This was later increased to four years.

The JFK Assassination Records Processing Project at U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) states (as of October 22, 2021, see link below):

"When Congress passed the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act in 1992 agencies throughout the Federal Government transferred assassination-related records to the National Archives which established the JFK Assassination Records Collection. The Collection consists of approximately 5 million pages of records. Approximately 88% of the records in the Collection are open in full. An addition 11% are released in part with sensitive portions removed. Approximately 1% of documents identified as assassination-related remain withheld in full. All documents withheld either in part or in full were authorized for withholding by the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), an independent temporary agency that was in existence from 1994 to 1998."

"According to the Act, all records previously withheld either in part or in full should be released on October 26, 2017, unless authorized for further withholding by the President of the United States."

There was an additional release on December 15, 2022. See link below for NARA page on these documents.

President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-526, 106 STAT. 3443
Also called JFK Records Act
"To Provide for the Expeditious Disclosure of Records Relevant to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy." Detailed description in Bill Summary on this page.
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Authenticated version on GovInfo.gov in "United States Statutes at Large" - https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-106/pdf/STATUTE-106-Pg3443.pdf
The Assassination Records Review Board Report. Final Report (NARA)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): "The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 created the Assassination Records Review Board as an independent agency to re-examine for release the assassination-related records that federal agencies still regarded as too sensitive to open to the public. The Board finished its work on September 30, 1998, issued a final report, and transferred all of its records to the National Archives and Records Administration."
Presidential Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies
Archived page in WayBack Machine, Internet Archive. Text of memorandum.
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The "JFK Records Act" required records be released no later than October 26, 2017. Trump extended the deadline by 6 months. Then issued a memorandum that extended the deadline and allowed four additional years (until October 2021) for federal agencies to release withheld documents relating to JFK assassination.
JFK Assassination Records Processing Project (NARA)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) page explaining the processing, and subsequent release, of JFK assassination records held by federal agencies.
JFK Assassination Records - 2022 Additional Documents Release (NARA)
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) page on the December 15, 2022 release of additional documents.
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Includes a table with metadata on the documents and links to online copies.

Articles

Biden Faces Deadline for Release of More JFK Assassination Papers
Article mentioned on GovDoc-L listserv. Includes overview of some events during JFK presidency, especially as relates to classified records.
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Biden Faces Deadline for Release of More JFK Assassination Papers - by Jefferson Morley, Rex Bradford in The Intercept, October 20 2021, 1:34 p.m.

Additional

Ruby Shoots Oswald! Today in History (LOC)
Library of Congress (LOC) blog post has links to resources
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Site: "On November 24, 1963, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a Dallas police station. Broadcasting live from the scene, television cameras captured Oswald’s murder and shocked television viewers became unwitting witnesses to the crime."
Note, Jack Ruby to attorney Elmer Gertz revealing the assassin's despair and paranoia, 9 September 1965 (LOC)
Library of Congress (LOC) images of handwritten letter