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President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago this week and Americans, and indeed many others around the world, have been looking back at his legacy.

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CNN's Jonathan Mann tells us why President Kennedy has had such an enduring impact.

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He died at age 46 50 years ago,

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but he endures in aging black-and-white images and indelibly in America's imagination,

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a popular young president with a beautiful wife and an easy manner,

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projecting the optimism of an era that some historians would call the American Century.

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Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

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Jacqueline Kennedy was 31 when they entered the White House, and widowed at 34.

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She called their time "Camelot,"

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likening the Kennedy administration to a royal court and her husband to the legendary King Arthur.

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The Kennedys did become a kind of American royalty, a dynasty in national life --

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brother Robert, a senator, assassinated as he ran for the presidency;

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brother Teddy, a senator who served for decades;

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and daughter Caroline today serving as the new U.S. ambassador to Japan.

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In his own day, John Kennedy was hardly a king,

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but he was a Cold Warrior who challenged the spread of Soviet influence.

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He set America on a path to the moon and on the path to its national nightmare in Vietnam.

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In America's collective memory,

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the Cuban missile crisis -- a standoff with Moscow that brought the two superpowers to the brink of war --

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is recalled as a winning example of American resolve.

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Kennedy's decision to order the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion fiasco in Cuba tends to be forgotten, or forgiven.

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Kennedy was president for barely more than a thousand days.

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On his last day, riding through Dallas,

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he was assassinated in an open car at a time when wanton violence in broad daylight was even more shocking.

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It was an abrupt end to a more innocent time.

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The images are still sobering half a century later,

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but Kennedy's killing was the first time that America shared a national tragedy through the medium of television.

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Adding to the shock, Kennedy's assassin was himself assassinated before he could fully answer for the crime.

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So some Americans wonder to this day if they really know how John Kennedy died or who was responsible for it.

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A president's life has myth, murder, mystery. It's no wonder America hasn't let go of the memory.