1963: Johnson takes over as president

Lyndon Baines Johnson, the new President of the United States following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, began his first full day as chief executive today. He was the second Johnson to become president as the result of an assassination. After Abraham Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth, Andrew Johnson became the 17th president of the U.S.

"The new President, who took over with an appeal for the help of God and the American people, held a mid-evening meeting with House and Senate leaders of both parties after conferring with several top administration officials. Johnson, only a few cars back when an assassin's bullet felled his predecessor in a Dallas, Tex., motorcade, held the conferences almost immediately after he arrived back in the capital on the plane that also returned President Kennedy's body," reported the Austin American Statesman on November 23, 1963.

NOTE: Besides finishing Kennedy’s term as President, LBJ would go on to be elected as President in 1964. He was responsible for reforms including Medicaid and Medicare, and for escalating U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He was succeeded by Richard Nixon.