Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1953. Jack beams with bride, Nikita beams with pride

On Sept. 13, 1953, The Providence Sunday Journal unwittingly offered the world a preview of front pages to come.

The lead photo that day, accompanied by a story that jumped to the inside of the newspaper, showed John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, who had been married the day before in Newport. The story included detailed descriptions of the decor of the church and the wardrobe of the bridal party, as well as complete lists of the honor attendants and the dignitaries in the audience.

Running just above the photograph, as the lead story of the day, was news that Nikita S. Khrushchev had just been named first secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party.

Kennedy and Khrushchev, who would become paired in history a decade later as the central players in the hottest moments of the Cold War, first shared a front page under much happier times.