On June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General from 1961 to 1964, was assassinated.
His death came just as he was announcing his victory in the Democratic primary for U.S. President in California.
Robert Francis Kennedy was born in 1925 in Brooklyn, Massachusetts. He studied at many schools, including in London, where his father was ambassador. In 1946, he entered “Harvard“, and then studied law at the University of Virginia. In 1951, he began working at the Department of Justice, and the following year successfully led his brother John's campaign for senator.
In 1959/60, John triumphantly entered the White House. The victory catapulted Robert to the top and he became Secretary of Justice. Robert embarked on a relentless battle with organized crime and the mafia, often coming into conflict with FBI chief Edgar Hoover. The two Kennedys worked together to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 dramatically changed Robert, but not his determination to remain in politics. In 1964, he won the election for senator from New York, and in 1968 he ran for president. Robert focused on a program of racial and economic justice, a non-aggressive foreign policy, decentralization of power, and social policy. He won most of the primaries.
In the early morning hours of June 5, he announced his victory in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and as he was leaving, he was fatally shot by 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, and died hours later.