November 29, 1963
Warren Commission established
0 documents / 1 external sources
Open eventA case-wide chronology for moving between biography, Cold War context, the Dallas weekend, investigation milestones, and release history.
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October 18, 1939 through January 30, 2026. Investigation is the largest category.
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Born at Old French Hospital, New Orleans, to Marguerite Claverie Oswald. His father, Robert E. Lee Oswald Sr., had died of a heart attack two months earlier.
Enlists in Dallas at age 17; reports to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, on October 26, 1956.
At the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Santo Trafficante Jr., Johnny Roselli, and Sam Giancana meet with CIA operatives Robert Maheu and James O'Connell. Poison pills and $10,000 are transferred for use against Fidel Castro. The meeting is a cornerstone of the Church Committee's 1975 Interim Report.
Chicago organized-crime figure Sam Giancana is shot and killed in his Oak Park, Illinois, home shortly before he is scheduled to testify before the Church Committee on CIA-Mafia Castro plots. The killing remains officially unsolved.
The National Academy of Sciences (Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, chaired by Norman Ramsey) issues a report concluding that the acoustic evidence does not support the HSCA's finding of a second gunman.
The theatrical release of Oliver Stone's "JFK" brings renewed public attention to the Kennedy assassination records and creates political momentum for what becomes the JFK Records Act.
Dies in New Orleans at age 70.
Memoir defending Warren Commission methodology and the single-bullet conclusion.
Former senior CIA Mexico City case officer dies at age 85.
NARA releases 1,491 additional documents. Indexed as release_set='2021'.
NARA releases ~13,200 additional documents. Indexed as release_set='2022'.
Held at Triscornia immigration camp in Cuba after the 1959 revolution; released months later.
Appears at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and declares his intent to renounce U.S. citizenship. The CIA opens a 201 personality file on Oswald the following December.
Arrested by INS during a routine alien check-in and flown to Guatemala the same day, as part of Robert Kennedy's organized-crime task-force operations. Marcello re-entered the United States within months.
The CIA-directed Brigade 2506 lands at Playa Girón, Cuba. The operation fails within three days, reshaping Kennedy-CIA relations and U.S. policy toward Castro.
Marries in Minsk, Belorussian SSR. Their first daughter, June, is born February 15, 1962.
Arrives in New York with Marina and infant daughter June. Interviewed at Idlewild Airport by the FBI. Settles first in Fort Worth, then Dallas.
A rifle shot is fired through the dining-room window of Major General Edwin A. Walker's Dallas home. Warren Commission and ARRB records attribute the shot to Oswald.
The Warren Commission begins taking sworn testimony. Marina Oswald is the first witness, appearing February 3-6, 1964.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reverses Jack Ruby's 1964 conviction for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, citing improperly admitted testimony and prejudicial trial venue.
Jack Ruby dies at Parkland Memorial Hospital of a pulmonary embolism during treatment for lung cancer. He had been awaiting retrial following the October 1966 reversal.
Garrison arrests New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw, charging him with conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. Garrison alleges Shaw used the alias "Clay Bertrand."
A four-member medical panel convened by Attorney General Ramsey Clark reviews the Kennedy autopsy materials and concludes the findings are consistent with the Warren Commission's.
Trial opens in Orleans Parish Criminal Court before Judge Edward A. Haggerty Jr. The trial lasts 40 days.
After less than one hour of deliberation, the jury returns a not-guilty verdict. Shaw remains the only person ever criminally tried for conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination.
Johnny Roselli testifies in closed session on the CIA-Mafia Castro plots, five days after Sam Giancana's murder.
The Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (Rockefeller Commission) issues its report, which includes a limited review of the Kennedy assassination autopsy materials.
Additional Church Committee testimony on CIA-Mafia Castro operations.
Testifies in executive session about CIA-Mafia Castro plots.
The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (Church Committee) publishes its final report in six books. Book V focuses specifically on the intelligence agencies' performance in the Kennedy investigation.
A New York Times investigation concludes that Johnny Roselli was killed as a direct consequence of his Church Committee testimony.
The HSCA publishes its Final Report, concluding that President Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." The report concludes that Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante Jr. had the motive, means, and opportunity to be involved, while finding no direct evidence of participation. Twelve volumes of appendices follow.
Dies in Houston, Texas following heart surgery.
The U.S. Department of Justice, in a letter to the Speaker of the House, declines to reopen its investigation of the Kennedy assassination, citing the NAS/Ramsey Panel findings.
President George H. W. Bush signs the JFK Records Act (P.L. 102-526), creating the JFK Assassination Records Collection at NARA and the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) to oversee declassification.
The five members of the Assassination Records Review Board are sworn in, beginning formal declassification review.
Interviewed at her home in Washington by historian John M. Newman. Acknowledges the omissions in the October 10 cable.
Follow-up interview; characterizes the cable as "indicative of a keen interest in Oswald held on a need-to-know basis."
The ARRB formally declares the original Zapruder film an assassination record, beginning the process by which the federal government acquires it from the Zapruder family.
Follow-up ARRB deposition; addressed gaps from the 1995 session. Contains the Phillips "lazy Soviet desk officer" rebuttal.
Former senior CIA CI/Liaison officer; date approximate.
Former Warren Commission counsel and five-term U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania dies in Philadelphia.
NARA releases 3,810 documents under the JFK Records Act. Additional releases follow across 2017-2018.
NARA releases 19,045 additional documents. This release is indexed in the current corpus under release_set='2017-2018'.
NARA releases the bulk of remaining previously-withheld records per President Biden's October 2022 memorandum. Indexed as release_set='2023'.
President Trump signs Executive Order 14176 directing full release of remaining JFK-related records. The order sets a 15-day review deadline for a declassification plan.
NARA publishes the first tranche of EO 14176 records: approximately 63,000 pages. Re-releases of many previously-redacted documents without redaction.
NARA publishes 140 PDFs totaling 11,022 pages. Pending manifest and ingest.
FBI informant Edward Becker reports a threat attributed to Marcello at Churchill Farms, Louisiana. The HSCA later investigated the allegation and could not corroborate it.
U.S. intelligence confirms Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. Thirteen-day standoff shapes the operational context for much of the following year's CIA-Cuba planning.
Travels to Mexico City; visits the Cuban Consulate and the Soviet Embassy through October 2. CIA station cables record the contact; no visa is issued.
Per CI/Liaison routing logs, Roman reads an FBI report describing Oswald's September 1963 Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities in New Orleans. She signs the HQ cable to Mexico City six days later; that cable does not reference the FBI report.
The CIA headquarters cable responding to the Mexico City station's report on Oswald's Cuban and Soviet embassy visits is dispatched over Roman's signature. The cable states the agency had last reported on Oswald in May 1962. Several FBI reports on his September 1963 New Orleans activities had been routed through CIA in the intervening weeks and are not referenced in the cable. Not fully declassified until 2002.
Begins work as a $1.25/hour order filler at the TSBD building at Elm and Houston in Dallas.
The Dallas Times Herald publishes the presidential motorcade route; the Dallas Morning News publishes it the following day (November 19). Route is public 72 hours before the motorcade.
CIA case officer Nestor Sanchez meets Rolando Cubela (AMLASH-1) in Paris and passes him a poison pen. The meeting concerns a plot against Fidel Castro and is underway at the same hour as the assassination in Dallas. Documented in the Church Committee record.
President Lyndon B. Johnson issues Executive Order 11130 establishing the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Sworn in as junior assistant counsel, assigned to Area I (Basic Facts of the Assassination) under senior counsel Francis W. H. Adams.
Conducts Warren Commission depositions of Drs. Humes, Boswell, and Finck regarding the November 22, 1963 autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
Chief Justice Warren delivers the Commission's 888-page final report to President Johnson. The report is released publicly September 27, 1964. Chapter III, authored by assistant counsel Arlen Specter, presents the single-bullet conclusion.
The 26 volumes of Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits are published through the Government Printing Office.
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison begins the only DA-led investigation of the Kennedy assassination in U.S. history.
Last seen leaving his home in Plantation, Florida. His body is recovered ten days later in an oil drum in Dumfoundling Bay.
The body of CIA-mob intermediary Johnny Roselli is found in a 55-gallon oil drum in Dumfoundling Bay, Florida. He had disappeared July 28, 1976, shortly before additional scheduled HSCA testimony on CIA-Mafia Castro plots. The FBI later identified Santo Trafficante Jr. as the most likely figure to have ordered the killing; the murder remains officially unsolved.
The U.S. House of Representatives passes House Resolution 1540 establishing the House Select Committee on Assassinations to re-examine the Kennedy and King assassinations.
George de Mohrenschildt, who befriended the Oswalds in Dallas in 1962-63 and testified before the Warren Commission, dies in Manalapan, Florida. The medical examiner rules the death a suicide by shotgun wound. HSCA investigator Gaeton Fonzi had attempted to interview him that afternoon.
Testifies under court-ordered grant of immunity at a public HSCA hearing; characterizes his role in the Castro plots primarily as that of an interpreter.
Meets with HSCA investigators in Washington about Mexico City station operations during the Oswald visits.
The HSCA announces a tentative acoustic finding, based on an analysis of a Dallas Police Department dictabelt recording, suggesting a fourth shot was fired. This becomes the primary basis for its "probable conspiracy" conclusion.
Former CIA Director Richard Helms acknowledges in Congressional testimony that Clay Shaw had served as a contact for the CIA's Domestic Contact Service in the 1950s–early 1960s.
Garrison's memoir on the Shaw prosecution; later adapted into Oliver Stone's 1991 film "JFK".
Deposed by the Assassination Records Review Board; classified secret at the time. Most detailed first-person account of the Mexico City station's handling of Oswald-related intelligence.
The Assassination Records Review Board publishes its Final Report, concluding its work and transferring its records to the National Archives. Over 4 million pages have been declassified under the JFK Records Act by this point.
Second 2025 tranche from NARA: approximately 14,000 additional pages.
Third 2025 tranche from NARA: approximately 2,400 additional pages.
President Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy, Vice President Johnson, Governor Connally, and staff arrive at Dallas Love Field.
Ten-car presidential motorcade departs Love Field for the Trade Mart via Main Street, Houston Street, and Elm Street through Dealey Plaza.
Shots are fired at the presidential motorcade as it passes the Texas School Book Depository. The Warren Commission concluded three shots were fired; the HSCA's 1979 acoustic analysis suggested a possible fourth, a finding later rejected by the NAS/Ramsey Panel. President Kennedy is fatally wounded; Governor Connally is seriously wounded; bystander James Tague sustains a minor injury from a bullet or fragment striking the curb of Main Street.
President Kennedy is pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Governor Connally survives his wounds.
Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit is shot and killed on East 10th Street about 100 feet east of Patton Avenue in Oak Cliff. At least nine witnesses positively identify Oswald — five in police lineups by the evening of November 22, a sixth the next day, and three more from photographs.
Dallas Police arrest Lee Harvey Oswald inside the Texas Theatre, 231 West Jefferson Boulevard, Oak Cliff. He is charged with the Tippit murder the same evening, and with the Kennedy assassination later that night.
Aboard Air Force One at Love Field, Judge Sarah T. Hughes administers the oath of office to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Marina Oswald is shown the CE-133 backyard photographs and testifies that she took them in the backyard of the Neely Street residence in late March or early April 1963.
During a jail transfer in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters, Jack Ruby steps forward and fires a single round from a .38 Colt Cobra revolver (serial #2744 LW) into Oswald's abdomen.
Lee Harvey Oswald is pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where President Kennedy was pronounced dead 47 hours earlier.
The state funeral procession passes from the White House to St. Matthew's Cathedral, followed by burial at Arlington National Cemetery.