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November 24
The shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald was captured live on television
1963: Kennedy "assassin" murdered
England have
The man accused of assassinating the US President, John F Kennedy, has
himself been shot dead in a Dallas police station.
Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old former Marine, was being transferred from
police headquarters to the county jail, at the centre of a large crowd of police
officers, reporters and camera crews.
The event was being covered live on television, and Americans across the
country watched in astonishment as a man - later identified as Jack Ruby, a
Dallas nightclub owner - stepped forward, drew a gun and shot Mr Oswald at
point-blank range.
Mr Oswald fell to the floor, grasping his stomach, as a confused scuffle
broke out between police, reporters and the gunman.
An ambulance rushed Mr Oswald to the Parkland Hospital - the same hospital
which had fought to save President Kennedy"s life two days earlier - but he died
within minutes of his arrival.
Mr Oswald was about to stand trial accused of the murder of the
president.
He was arrested about an hour after the assassination, carried out as the
President"s motorcade passed through the Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
He was initially taken into custody for the murder of a policeman, JD
Tippit, who appears to have recognised him and approached him just 45 minutes
after the killing of the President.
Soon after, Mr Oswald was also charged with the President"s
assassination.
He strongly denied that he carried out the assassination, saying to
reporters, "I"m just a patsy."
Police gave no explanation of how Jack Ruby came to be in the police
headquarters.
The building had been under heavy guard after several calls making threats
against Oswald"s life.
Ruby came to Dallas from Chicago 10 years ago.
He runs a downtown striptease club, and is said to have links with
organised criminals.
Police said Ruby had told them, "I didn"t want to be a hero - I did it for
Jacqueline Kennedy."
They said he wanted to spare the president"s wife the ordeal of the trial
of the man accused of killing her husband.
Ruby has been formally charged with murder and is now being held in custody
without bail.
Opposition leader Vaclav Havel with returned exile Alexander Dubcek
(right)
1989: New era for Czechoslovakia
Artificially 1969:
The The entire leadership of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia has
resigned to make way for democratic changes.
Party Leader Milos Jakes had called an emergency meeting of his government
this morning after admitting to underestimating the force of the pro-democracy
movement.
Twenty-four members of the Politburo and the Secretariat stood down -
mainly the same hardliners who called in the Soviet tanks in 1968 to crush the
"Prague Spring" reformers.
And the hero of that movement, Alexander Dubcek, has returned from exile to
a triumphant welcome in Prague.
He told a jubilant crowd of 250,000 people in Wenceslas Square: "My idea of
socialism with a human face is living with a new generation".
He also said the new Civic Reform - the broad coalition of opposition
groups formed only a few days ago - represented "all the people".
Pressure on the Czech Communist Party had been building for months as they
found themselves increasingly out of step with other Warsaw Pact countries and
their own people.
Two weeks ago the change sweeping Europe resulted in the breaching of the
continent"s most potent symbol of the West-East divide - the Berlin Wall.
Even the Kremlin - led by reforming President Mikhail Gorbachev - has
indicated it wished to see change in Czechoslovakia.
Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda said recently the Czech people had
"lost faith" in their leaders.
And after the resignations Moscow called for a "greater understanding"
between the Czech authorities and those campaigning for reform.
Vocabulary:
striptease : a form of erotic entertainment in which a dancer gradually
undresses to music(脱衣舞) |
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发表于 2016-7-9 23:19:24