Kennedy assassination

The Kennedy assassination refers to the murder of the American President John F. Kennedy at Dealey Plaza, in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

The Master mentally programmed UNIT Private Francis Cleary and sent him from the near future to prevent the assassination, which would change history and possibly enable the Cuban Missile Crisis to proceed in such a way that it would lead to a nuclear war. James Stevens, a journalist with an obsession with the assassination attempt, went to 1963 using a time ring to stop Cleary. Stevens also discovered the true gunman who had killed Kennedy and recognized him as an older version of Stevens himself, traveled back from the future a second time. In order to preserve the course of history, in 1996, after writing a book revealing the truth, he used the time ring again to carry out the assassination (MA: Who Killed Kennedy).

Behind the Scenes
Inevitably, the premiere of Doctor Who on November 23, 1963 and the Kennedy assassination the day before have gotten inextricably linked in the minds of viewers.

The Kennedy assassination happened during the filming of an episode of The Daleks, interrupting shooting as the cast and crews learned of the news. News coverage of the killing caused the interruption of the normal television schedule, too, so that on November 23, 1963, one day after the assassination, the first episode of the first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child, aired five minutes late. The episode re-aired the next week so that more viewers could see undistracted by the tragic atmosphere.