JFK: Why his death would never have happened today

THE date most closely associated with the Secret Service isn’t its founding, in 1865. It’s not 1902, when it assumed full-time protection of the president, following William McKinley’s assassination.

It’s Nov 22, 1963 — the killing of John F. Kennedy, shot as he rode in a convertible with the top down, his bodyguards powerless.

“It isn’t something that we’re marking. It wasn’t a good day for us, or for the country,” Secret Service spokesman, Brian Leary said. “It was a dark day.”