For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown in motion to a national TV audience by Robert J. Groden and Dick Gregory.
The Zapruder film is a silent 8mm color motion picture sequence shot by Abraham Zapruder with a Bell & Howell home-movie camera, as United States President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Unexpectedly, it ended up capturing the President's assassination.
Even though it is not the only film of the shooting, the Zapruder film has been described as being the most complete one, giving a relatively clear view from a somewhat elevated position on the side from which the president's fatal head wound is visible. It was an important part of the Warren Commission hearings and all subsequent investigations of the assassination, and it is one of the most studied pieces of film in history. Of greatest notoriety is the film's capture of the fatal shot to President Kennedy's head when his presidential limousine was almost exactly in front of, and slightly below, Zapruder's position.
In 1994, the footage was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".