Fifty years on from being assassinated in Dallas, John F. Kennedy continues to captivate the public's imagination to this very day. Friday will mark the half-century anniversary of his death, with TV networks and film studios trotting out
special documentaries and
movies to mark the occasion. Shot dead at the age of 46, Kennedy has been the subject of
various conspiracy theories, books and films over the years, his murder perhaps being one of the most documented of the 20th century. But how much did we really know about JFK as a president, and, perhaps more importantly, as a person? Here, WhatCulture! lists 10 Things You Didn't Know About JFK.
10. Lee Harvey Oswald Wasn't The Only Man To Plot To Kill JFK
Shot dead in Dallas on November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald wasn't the only man to attempt to assassinate the President. Just a month after being elected president in 1961, Richard Pavlick attempted to
blow Kennedy up with dynamite in a plot that has largely been airbrushed from the annals of history thanks to Oswald's successful attempt two years later. Pavlick, who held contempt for Catholics, planned to ram the president's vehicle with his car, loaded with dynamite, and blow himself, and Kennedy, sky high. "The closeness of the call was appalling," Secret Service chief U.E. Baughman recalled years later. Fortunately, a routine traffic stop exposed the would-be assassin's stash of explosives as he followed JFK, and he was later committed to a mental hospital after being deemed unfit to stand trial for the plot. He would outlive Kennedy by 12 years, dying at the age of 88 in 1975.