Dec. 18, 1963 - The Senate completed Congressional authorization today for the use of a likeness of President Kennedy on half-dollars minted after Jan. 1, 1964. The action was by a voice vote with no formal objection. President Johnson proposed the Kennedy half-dollars in a message to Congress Dec. 10. The House subsequently passed the bill. Also today, a local New York law changing the name of New York International Airport at Idlewild, Queens, to John F. Kennedy International Airport was signed by Mayor Robert Wagner (pictured right with President Kennedy in 1960) today in City Hall. The Mayor announced the airport would be formally rededicated next Tuesday at 11 a.m. at a ceremony in the main lobby of the International Arrivals Building. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the President, will head a list of dignitaries who will be present. Mayor Wagner called the name change a “fitting tribute to our late, great President.” The Mayor noted that the airport, out of several city projects and developments, had been selected for the name change after consultation with the Kennedy family. And in another legislative step toward honoring Mr. Kennedy, the House Rules Committee cleared today a bill to rename the Cultural Center in Washington as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
