Know about Lee Harvey Oswald, the lone assassin of JFK

New Delhi: At the centre of one of the 20th century's most shocking and traumatic events - the assassination of President John F. Kennedy - was a 24-year-old whose unusual life's journey stretched from New Orleans, New York City and Texas to the Soviet Union, from U.S. Marine to defector, from a temperamental man who had difficulty holding a job, to a figure infamous for being either a lone gunman who brought down a president, or part of a shadowy conspiracy. For 50 years, Lee Harvey Oswald has remained the enigmatic figure at the center of the Kennedy assassination. Was he a lone gunman? A conspirator? A patsy? Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939, two months after the death of his father, an insurance salesman. For a brief time he was placed in an orphanage with an older brother and half-brother. He returned to live with his mother, Marguerite, when she briefly remarried. Living in Fort Worth, Texas, and then New York City, young Oswald exhibited discipline problems - skipping school, and exhibiting a propensity to fight with classmates. Oswald enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on October 24, 1956, just after his seventeenth birthday. Oswald's primary training was radar operation; a position requiring a security clearance.In the Aircraft Control and Warning Operator Course he finished seventh in a class of thirty.He was assigned first to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in July 1957, then to Naval Air Facility Atsugi inJapan in September as part of Marine Air Control Squadron 1.Like all Marines, Oswald was trained and tested in shooting and he scored 212 in December 1956, slightly above the requirements for the designation of sharpshooter. In May 1959 he scored 191, which reduced his rating to marksman. Oswald was court-martialed after accidentally shooting himself in the elbow with an unauthorized .22 handgun, then court-martialed again for fighting with a sergeant who he thought was responsible for his punishment in the shooting matter. He was demoted from private first class to private and briefly imprisoned in the brig. He was later punished for a third incident: while on night-time sentry duty in the Philippines, he inexplicably fired his rifle into the jungle. In October 1959, just before turning 20, Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union, a trip he planned well in advance. On September 11, 1959, he received a hardship discharge from active service, claiming his mother needed care, and was put on reserve. Oswald sought Soviet citizenship through the U.S.S.R.'s embassy in Helsinki, Finland. He was denied. In his diary Oswald wrote of attempting suicide in his hotel, where he was found in a bathtub with his left wrist slit. Oswald was ultimately granted asylum and moved to Minsk, where he worked at an electronics factory. He also met Marina Prusakova, a 19-year-old pharmacology student. The two married in 1961. He lived in the Soviet Union until June 1962, at which time he returned to the United States. Oswald was initially arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit, who was killed on a Dallas street approximately 45 minutes after President Kennedy was shot. Oswald would later be charged with the assassination of President Kennedy as well, but denied involvement in either of the killings. Two days later, while being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail; Oswald was shot and killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in full view of television cameras broadcasting live.