WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama decreed a national day of remembrance for John F. Kennedy for Friday, ordering that all flags fly at half-staff on the 50th anniversary of the slain leader's assassination.
"A half century ago, America mourned the loss of an extraordinary public servant," Obama said in a proclamation.
"With broad vision and soaring but sober idealism, president John F. Kennedy had called a generation to service and summoned a nation to greatness," he added.
"In his three years as president of the United States, John F. Kennedy weathered some of the most perilous tests of the Cold War and led America to the cusp of a bright new age."
Obama hailed Kennedy's leadership through the Cuban Missile Crisis and in his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech at the height of the Cold War.
"While president Kennedy's life was tragically cut short, his vision lives on in the generations he inspired," Obama said.
Obama called on all government buildings to lower their American flags to half-staff to commemorate Kennedy, and urged private citizens to do the same at their homes and businesses.
Alongside former Democratic president Bill Clinton, Obama laid a wreath of Kennedy's grave on Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery, then paid tribute to the fallen leader at a dinner honoring his legacy of public service in Washington.
Kennedy was gunned down as he drove in an open-top car through Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, in a crime that shook the world.
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