The US is marking 50 years since President John F Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas.
The city, which has long struggled with the legacy of the assassination, hosts a series of official events on Friday.
Kennedy is often ranked among the nation's most revered presidents, though he served less than three years.
He is commemorated for his youthful vigour, his leadership through the Cuban missile crisis, and his challenge to America to put a man on the Moon.
But he is also remembered for ordering one of the most disastrous episodes of the Cold War, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of communist Cuba by a CIA-trained paramilitary force of Cuban exiles.
Kennedy's family members laid a wreath on his grave at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC on Friday. His wife Jackie and two of their children are also buried there.
Nearby, President Barack Obama ordered the White House flag be flown at half mast."Today, we honor his memory and celebrate his enduring imprint on American history," Mr Obama wrote on Thursday.
Mr Obama is also scheduled to meet with leaders of the Kennedy-established Peace Corps programme.
Among official events in Dallas on Friday, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will perform, MayorMichael Rawlings will give an address, and bells will toll at the minute of Kennedy's death.Only 5,000 people will be able attend the ceremonies in Dealey Plaza, but video feeds of the events will be piped to special screens set up throughout the downtown area.
Elsewhere, a wreath laying ceremony was planned in the German capital Berlin where Kennedy gave his Cold War-era "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in June 1963.Those events and others conclude a week of tributes to the slain American leader.
Kennedy, a Democrat, was part of one of the most prominent US political dynasties of the 20th Century.
His father, Joseph, was a wealthy businessman who served in senior positions in the government of President Franklin Roosevelt, including as ambassador to Britain.
Two of his brothers later served as US senators and ran for president. One of them, Robert, was himself assassinated in 1968.
Edward Kennedy,who died in 2009, was a champion of progressive causes including universal healthcare.
John Kennedy's daughter Caroline is now the US ambassador to Japan.
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