An unlikely duo

Although the two men had been rivals for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, Harvard-educated John F. Kennedy ultimately chose the folksy Texan, Lyndon B. Johnson, as his running mate. The pair won a close election by a slim popular margin of only a hundred thousand votes. After Kennedy’s assassination on 22 November 1963, it was Johnson who ultimately signed the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that prevents any nation from claiming sovereignty over the Moon or sending nuclear weapons into outer space.

Paper flag, John F. Kennedy (Democratic), 1960. Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive. MSS Amer. s. 33 / 1 / 1. Vere Harmsworth Library (Rothermere American Institute), Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.