On Friday, November 22, 1963, the news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination spread around the globe. The event occurred in Dallas, Texas, and the news reached England via ticker-tape at 6:42 pm, just 11 minutes after the shots were fired.

As the BBC’s Monitoring Service scanned the airwaves for any updates, a bulletin emerged from the Voice of America at 7:40 pm, confirming that President Kennedy was dead.

The assassination of President Kennedy is one of those moments when many people can recall what they were doing.

The audience at the Regal cinema in Abingdon were watching The Longest Day, the American film drama about the D-Day landings.

The reel paused, the lights flickered on, and after a hubbub, a hush fell, as a man appeared on stage.

He said: “I am afraid to inform you ladies and gentlemen that the President of the United States has been assassinated. We have no further information at this time.”

Elizabeth, who was there, remembered the two minute silence that followed the announcement. Mike, was a member of the Royal Air Force, and for him the news carried another significance. He thought that the potential for conflict with the USSR, a threat that had been growing, now seemed an imminent reality.

(Elizabeth and Mike’s comments were reported in ‘Cinemas of Abingdon’ by Bob Frampton. Details of the timings came from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/how-the-kennedy-assassination-caught-the-bbc-on-the-hop-78973.html)

This afternoon, David Busby of Busby Bees entertained the Evergreen Club at Trinity Church, Abingdon, with an informative talk about bees. He showed a picture of a bee in amber that dates from the time of the dinosaurs. Bees were pollinating flowers both then and now.

Trinity Church will be celebrating a 150th anniversary on Sunday. The Sunday Morning service will include a look back over the last 150 years, and various archives items will be displayed. (The picture above shows the church during the removal of the pews in the early 1970s.)

On Wednesday last (November 26th 1873), the foundation stones for the new Wesleyan chapel were laid in Abingdon. The chapel is to be one of the largest in the town and will serve as a place of worship for the Wesleyan community. The stones were laid by Mrs. J. C. Clarke, her daughter Miss Elizabeth Clarke, Miss Edith Mewburn of Wycombe Park and Miss Sarah Vanner from Banbury. The Sunday School stone was laid by Mr. Harry Clarke. Behind one of the stones was placed a time capsule containing a copy of The Times, The Methodist Recorder, The Abingdon Herald, and a programme of the day’s services. The ceremony was attended by around 500 people, but the weather was not favourable and it rained heavily. This caused many of the company to leave early and the ceremony was adjourned to the Ock Street chapel after the last stone had been laid. The Rev. S. Atkinson, Abingdon’s Wesleyan Minister, led the singing of a new hymn he wrote for the occasion:

Thou who hast in Sion laid
The true foundation stone,
And with those a covenant made
Who build on that alone;
Hear us, Architect divine,
Great builder of Thy church below,
Now upon Thy servants shine
Who seek Thy praise to show.

(Taken from The Oxford Times of November 29th 1873 and D. B. Tranter’s ‘History of Trinity’)