Forty-five years ago today — on 29 November 1963 — President Lyndon Johnson issued Executive Order Number 11129 to change the name Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy.
According to this site,
On November 28, 1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson announced in a televised address that Cape Canaveral would be renamed Cape Kennedy in memory of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated six days earlier. President Johnson said the name change had been sanctioned by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names. Executive Order Number 11129, issued by President Johnson on November 29, 1963 decreed that the NASA Launch Operations Center (LOC), including facilities on Merritt Island and Cape Canaveral, would be renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA.
Florida residents didn’t appreciate the historic Cape Canaveral name being taken from them without their approval. Ten years later, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names responded to challenges from the State of Florida by officially recognizing the state’s name change from Cape Kennedy back to Cape Canaveral. The space center remained John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA.
On a political note, this makes an interesting contrast to the numerous calls to name places after the current President-elect. At least, I think it’s an appropriate counterpoint.
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