Oct. 1, 1963 - Emperor Haile Selassie, who became ruler of a nation before John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born, arrived in Washington today and received a welcome as warm as the Indian summer weather. Both the President and Mrs. Kennedy, making her first public appearance in Washington in months, were at Union Station to greet the Ethiopian ruler at the end of a red carpet 100 yards long on the platform. At the station, Mrs. Kennedy, speaking in French, told the monarch she had broken her mourning period for her son Patrick Bouvier, who died on Aug. 9 less than two days after his birth, to come to welcome him. His reply, in French, expressed his gratitude. In his greeting, the President called him a man “whose place in history is already assured.” The visit of the 72-year-old Emperor, who has ruled Ethiopia since 1916, has been billed as a chance for him to get acquainted with Mr. Kennedy, who is 46. The monarch’s only previous trip to the U.S. was in 1954, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House. Today, the two leaders rode in an open blue limousine behind marching bands and troops in a motorcade on Pennsylvania Avenue. Thousands of Washingtonians lined the curbs between the station and the White House and cheered.
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