Following the official announcement of President Kennedy 's death , all three commercial networks suspended their regular programming and commercials for the first time in the short history of television and ran coverage on a non-stop basis for four days . The assassination of President Kennedy was the longest uninterrupted news event in the history of American television until just before 9:00 a.m. EDT , September 11 , 2001 , when the networks were on the air for 72 hours straight covering the 9/11 terrorist attacks
9/11 terrorist attacks
September 11 attacks
Timeline of the John F. Kennedy assassination