It was 60 years ago today that CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley died, but news of their deaths were overshadowed by the assassination of President John F Kennedy that very same day of November 22, 1963.
JFK’s short administration spanned just over 1000 days, but historians lay and academic have been fascinated by the man, his wife Jackie and the whole Kennedy family for decades.
Speaking previously with Express.co.uk in an exclusive interview, Christopher Andersen – the bestselling author of These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack and Jackie – shared little known facts about the President and First Lady.
The Kennedy expert unveiled how JFK was obsessed with death and how he prophetically had a feeling his would be a violent one.
Andersen shared: “I don’t think most people realise how fatalistic, in the most eerie way possible, Jack was. You couldn’t have a conversation with him that lasted very long without him bringing it up.
“He used to ask his friends how they wanted to die. He even said as they left for Dallas [where he was assassinated], ‘If somebody wants to shoot me, they can do it and I’m not going to worry about it.’
“He had these premonitions frequently, that his life would end violently and terribly. I just think it’s stunning how often he talked about it.”
Andesen added: “Between Jack and Jackie, they were given the Last Rites from the Roman Catholic Church six times. He’d almost died in back surgery, she had almost died with a miscarriage and child birth.”
But of course, in the end, his life would tragically end at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald on that fateful November day in Dealey Plaza, Dallas.