Picture of the day - June 14, 2007

President Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the Oath of Office

Photo courtesy of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. On November 22, 1963, countless Americans peered through the lens of a television camera and witnessed the assassination of one of our most beloved Presidents, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. While Kennedy's assassination wasn't the first in our nation's history, it was the first one to be captured on film and video, bringing the horror of such a terrible event right into the living rooms of Americans from border to border. Kennedy's senseless murder in Dallas led to another first as well: a Vice-President of the United States taking the Oath of Office of President aboard Air Force One in the aftermath of a history-changing event. In the days following his swearing-in, Johnson took a lot of heat for arranging such a hasty and public ceremony, but that decisive action went a long way towards reassuring the shocked citizens of the United States that our form of government and the U.S. Constitution work like a well-oiled machine even in times of extreme sorrow and difficulty. It was indeed the right decision, and it served its intended purpose well. If he/she happens to be in the right place at the right time, any photographer has the ability to create a permanent photographic record of a world-changing event, and sometimes the picture itself can lead to a monumental change in a nation's policy or direction. Or, as in the case of the somber image featured above, it just might bring a measure of calm to a frightened and shocked nation.   Visit the POTD Archives for previous "Pictures Of The Day"!     Submit a photo of your own!            Why I publish the "Picture of the Day"