Today In History: Body Of JFK Is Moved; Obama Discusses Safety Of Nation's Food

March 14, 2017, is the 72nd day of the year, with 292 days remaining. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase, with illumination at 96 percent.

Body of JFK is Moved to Permanent Grave Site

The year is 1967. The body of President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent grave site, located a few feet from its original interment plot at Arlington National Cemetery. The president had been slain more than three years earlier on Nov. 22, 1963.

Kennedy’s original grave site attracted 16 million visitors in the first three years following his death, prompting the Kennedy family and Arlington officials to move the president’s grave in order to construct a safer site. Kennedy’s final resting place took two years to create, and his body was secretly moved and interred again in a private ceremony attended by his widow, Jackie, newly instated President Lyndon Johnson and Kennedy’s brothers, Edward and Robert.

Obama Announces Food Safety Working Group

A Saturday address found President Obama discussing the safety of the nation’s food.

“We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative, but there are certain things that we can’t do on our own,” he said. “There are certain things that only a government can do, and one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat and the medicines we take are safe and don’t cause us harm.”

The statement came after the president’s address of the government’s failure to inspect 95 percent of food processing, calling the incident “a hazard to the public health.” He announced the establishment of a Food Safety Working Group, which included the secretaries of Health and Agriculture. The group was intended to advise the president on laws and regulations needing to be changed. Then Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack commented that downer cattle, who cannot walk, would be banned from slaughter.

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Photo credit: Abbie Rowe via Harry S. Truman Library (NLHST) (1963)