PHOTO FINISH
ARRESTING IMAGES FROM THE ANNALS OF THE PAST
When Clinton met Kennedy 1963
No one would have realised it at the time, but this photograph would later take on a profound historical significance. Snapped at a youth leadership conference in July 1963, it shows the future 42nd US president Bill Clinton, then aged 16, shaking hands with the 35th president, John F Kennedy. Though they only met for a few seconds, the moment had a profound impact on the young Clinton. He would later go on to say that his brief encounter with JFK, along with watching Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech the same year, were the two catalysts that encouraged him to enter politics. Four months after the photograph was taken, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.