Lee Harvey Oswald

Defects to the Soviet Union at age 19. He'd joined the Marines at 17 and been court-martialed twice. In Moscow, he walks into the U.S. Embassy, slams his passport on the desk, and announces he wants to renounce his citizenship. The Soviets send him to Minsk, where he works in a radio factory and marries a pharmacist named Marina.

Returns to the United States with Marina and their infant daughter. The Soviets let him go. The State Department loans him the money for the trip. He settles in Dallas. Buys an Italian rifle by mail order for $19.95. Gets a job at the Texas School Book Depository.

Fires three shots from a sixth-floor window of the Book Depository as President Kennedy's motorcade passes through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy is pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital at 1:00 p.m. Forty-five minutes after the assassination, Oswald shoots and kills Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit on the street. He's arrested in a movie theater.

Shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters during a jail transfer. It happens on live television. Millions watch. Oswald is 24. He'd told reporters: "I'm just a patsy." The Warren Commission concludes he acted alone. Most Americans still don't believe it.