History relives the week of JFK’s assassination on Twitter

It was 50 years ago this week that President John F. Kennedy made his fateful trip to Dallas where he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and America’s course in the 1960s was altered forever. It’s events like this that a cable channel dedicated to history lives for, and History is not passing up the opportunity to fully explore the moment. It’s even using its official Twitter account to live-tweet the events leading up to the assassination.

The channel isn’t waiting until Friday, however. It’s tweeting right now. On this day 50 years ago, the president was in Tampa, Fla., for a campaign trip. Meanwhile, Dallas police and the Secret Service were looking at possible motorcade routes for the president’s visit.

VIDEO: Remembering JFK | PHOTOS: John F. Kennedy on screen

The Twitter feed is filled with links to photo archives and other online documents that fill out and enrich the unsettling, yet fascinating, experience of observing JFK moving inexorably toward his appointment with destiny.

Though, be on the lookout on Friday for the less-informed members of the Twitter generation breathlessly retweeting reports that the president has been shot in Dallas. You may think it’s an exaggeration, but there were people on Twitter who didn’t realize the Titanic sinking was an actual event.

PHOTOS: How TV reacted to JFK’s assassination

On Friday, the actual 50th anniversary of the event, History will premiere two new specials, “JFK: The Definitive Guide” and “Lee Harvey Oswald: 48 Hours to Live.”

To supplement the JFK anniversary information dump, the curious can also check out CBS News stream of all of its round-the-clock coverage of the assassination, starting at 10:40 a.m. on Nov. 22, the moment the network broke into its regular programming with the news. The stream is expected to continue through the weekend, ending Nov. 25. It will be available on the CBS News website.

In the meantime, the countdown continues on Twitter, where the president proceeds with his schedule and we can follow.

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