Mourning for U.S. President John F. Kennedy emcompassed the world on the day of his funeral, November 25, 1963. The assassination of the president in Dallas three days earlier shocked the world and people around the world were attending memorial services.

Hundreds of millions in Europe, the Soviet Union, and Japan, watched the funeral procession as live telecasts were relayed by American communications satellite.

All religions and faiths held memorial services for Kennedy. Only Communist China and its ideological supporters were aloof from the mourning.

Most of the world's leaders expressed their grief and their tributes over the weekend. The day of the funeral was the day when people did the same for the assassinated president.

This was a day of national mourning in the United States. Events were called off because of the mourning. Men and women everywhere were united in paying tribute to their fallen leader. Streets the width and breadth of the land were deserted while the services were held. Everyone who could followed the proceedings on television. Others heeded the call for the day of national mourning by going to their place of worship for a memorial service.

Schools, offices, stores, and factories were closed. Those that were open scheduled a minute of silence. Others permitted employees time off to attend memorial services.

In many states, governors declared the day of national mourning as a legal holiday in their state, allowing banks to close.

Traffic on major highways dwindled to almost nothing. Those leading to Washington were jammed over the weekend with people going to Washington to view the bier in the Capitol.

There was silence across the United States at 12:00 EST (17:00 UTC) for five minutes to mark the start of the funeral.

Here's how the telegraph services observed the silence:

• RCA telegraph facilities halted transmissions for five minutes at 12:00 EST. The same tribute was arranged with French Cable.
• Western Union International and Western Union Telegraph Company arranged a similar observnce starting at 13:00 EST.
• The AP silenced its wires while "Taps" were sounded at Arlington Cemetery at 15:06 EST.
• UPI silenced their wires at 12:00 EST.
• AT&T employees personnel observed the funeral with a minute of silence.

In Dallas, Tex., where an assassin's bullets cut short Kennedy's life and where the assassin himself was slain, the atmosphere was one of reverence. Thousands visited the site where the president was shot. People milled around in small groups gazing at the myriad flower arrangements marking the spot. The flower arrangements carried various messages. One read "God forgive us all." Another, "God bless you, President Kennedy."

In Austin, where Kennedy was supposed to have gone to after his visit to Dallas, several hundred mourners gathered in front of the state Capitol an hour before the funeral services in Washington. "We hang our heads in shame because it happened in the Lone Star State," a judge said.

In Boston, troops and dignitaries attended a service led by the chaplain in the Massachusetts State Senate in front of the State House on Boston Common.

In New York:

• All ground operations were suspended at New York's Idlewild Airport for one minute.
• New York Central Railroad trains were halted for one minute at 12:00, as were Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road trains.
• In New York's Times Square, pedestrians stood with bowed heads two minutes. Traffic had been diverted from the normally bustling area.
• The city's schools and colleges were closed for the day, as were many businesses. Amusements were blacked out.
• Black bunting was draped over colonnades of City Hall, and flags were at half-staff throughout the city.
• Delegates to the United Nations knelt in final tribute at a requiem mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral while the buildings of the world organization stood dark and empty.
• Across the Hudson River, in Newark, N.J., the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt fired a 21-gun salute, one each minute beginning at 12:00.

In Philadelphia, police attached black bands to badges in memory of the late president. The bell at Grace Episcopal Church in Honesdale, Pa., tolled 46 times at 12:00, once for each year of Kennedy's life.

In Kansas City, Mo., 15-minute services were held at the Country Club Christian Church hourly from 09:00 to 18:00 (local time). The services were conducted alternately by Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Greek Orthodox clergymen.

In Cleveland, Ohio, 3,500 persons tried to get into the Old Stone Presbyterian Church on public square. It normally seats 800.

During memorial services, church bells tolled.

Around the world, there was mourning. In many countries, governments asked that their citizens recognize the day of mourning in the United States as if it was their own and ordered flags flown at half-staff. Premiers, governors, and mayors also did the same thing. National legislatures met, then adjourned out of respect.

In London, both houses of Parliament adjourned out of respect. In the House of Commons, former prime minister Harold Macmillan made his first appearance since his illness, which forced him to resign. Macmillan, looking extremely pale, said in a hushed voice that the assassination of Kennedy, his "friend and colleague,...seemed to be a sudden and cruel extinction of a shining light" and that everyone in Britain "and I think every country, felt stunned by the shock of what seemed to us--each one of us--a personal bereavement." The House of Lords also passed a resolution expressing sorrow, led by former prime ministers Clement Atlee and Sir Anthony Eden. The lights of Piccadilly Circus went dark, but came on after Parliament adjourned.

Throughout West Germany and on both sides of the Iron Curtain, there were tributes to Kennedy. Flags throughout the country were at half-staff. Premiers, governors, and mayors spoke of words of sorrow on radio and television, which canceled all normal programs.

In West Berlin, half a million people came to city hall and watched as the square was named, "John F. Kennedy Plaza."

In Moscow, Nina Khrushchev , spouse of Premier Nikita Khrushchev, led the city's citizens in paying tribute. Like her husband did after the assassination, she called Spasso House, the residence of the ambassador, and met for 15 minutes with Foy D. Kohler, the American ambassador to Moscow, and signed the book of condolences. She came out with Kohler's wife and with tears in her eyes.

While citizens in Moscow attended memorial services, North Vietnamese students there defaced a student eulogy on the wall of Moscow University by scribbling on it a picture of a man with a rifle.

At Vatican City, 10,000 people crowded the Basilica of St. John Lateran where Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York celebrated a Roman Catholic mass. Attending were most of the 2,200 cardinals, archbishops, and bishops attending the Ecumenical Council, President Antonio Segni and other Italian government officials.

In India, both houses of Parliament convened to hear Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru say in a choked voice:

"A great president and a great man is dead, struck down by one of his own countrymen. We sorrow for this and now we cherish the cause for which he labored in his life." Then, slowly, Nehru added, "Perhaps he has served the cause by his death even as he labored in his lifetime."

After Nehru spoke, Defense Minister Y.B. Chavan spoke on the assassination. After they spoke, Parliament adjourned.

Nehru also attended a memorial service at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi along with President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and other Indian government officials. Some 8,000 attended this service. After the service, people waited to sign the books of condolences at the embassy. Both central and state governments in India observed a day of mourning.

Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella renamed a square in Algiers, the Algerian capital, after the late president, which a crowd watched.

Elsewhere around the world:

• Warsaw: 6,000 Poles inside St. John's Cathedral and several thousand more outside offered prayers.
• Paris: Government officials, American dignitaries, and plain Parisians filled the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
• Ottawa: Crowds, traffic stopped for two minutes of silence. People throughout Canada were asked to observe the two minutes of silence at noon ET, to mark the start of the state funeral.
• Panama: The capital city closed down for one hour.
• Madrid: Spaniards stood in drenching rain to attend memorial services at the U.S. Embassy.
• Cairo: Egyptians were in a seven-day mourning period.
• Beirut: The Iraqi radio reported that the new government in Baghdad attended Roman Catholic services in Kennedy's memory.
• Stockholm: King Gustaf Adolph led Sweden in national mourning, attending a memorial service.
• Rio De Janeiro: An estimated 1,000 Brazilians and foreign diplomats attended a requiem mass and even shook the hand of U.S. Ambassador Luhron Gordon, expressing their sympathy.
• Athens: Greek schools, functions remained closed for the national day of mourning.
• Jerusalem: The Israeli Parliament, in special session, heard Speaker Kadish Luz eulogize Kennedy.
• Ballykelly, Ireland: The Irish kin of President Kennedy attended a special mass by the 150-yearold church where the president's greatgrandfather, Patrick, was baptized.
• Saigon: Some 2,000 students demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy to express their sympathy with the American people for the assassination.
• Nairobi: When the state funeral started, Kenya sent a funeral wreath of 1,700 carnations and bird of paradise flowers to Washington.

Even after the funeral, memorial services for the president continued around the world.