Nov. 28, 1963 | LBJ Televised Thanksgiving Message

Nov. 28, 1963 - President Johnson tonight renamed Cape Canaveral Cape Kennedy in honor of his slain predecessor. He also gave the name John F. Kennedy to the Florida missile-space center. The President made the announcement during a Thanksgiving Day television address to the nation in which he asked Americans for “your help, your strength, your prayers that God may guard this Republic and guide my every labor.” It was Johnson’s first address delivered directly to the American people since becoming President. He asked that America’s determination be “that from this midnight of tragedy” of Kennedy’s assassination “we shall move toward a new American greatness.” Speaking from the Oval Office of the White House, Johnson said that he had ordered that “Station No. 1, the Atlantic Missile Range, will hereafter be known as the John F. Kennedy Space Center.” He also said that Cape Canaveral “shall hereafter be known as Cape Kennedy.” One of President Kennedy’s main goals had been to make the U.S. preeminent in space. One of his last trips took him to the space center. President Johnson paid tribute to Mrs. Kennedy and to the Kennedy children, Caroline and John Jr., and to all of the Kennedy family. “All of us have lived through seven days we will never forget,” he said. “The great leader is dead. The great nation must move on. Yesterday is not ours to recover. I am resolved we shall win the tomorrows before us…We live in peace. The good will of the world pours out upon us. Our citizenry is strong. The deed that was meant to tear us apart has bound us together.”

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