On the MetroDesk page of the Boston Globe today, Martin Finucane has post a brief black and white clip of then presidential candidate John F. Kennedy speaking before thousands of people in Boston Garden on November 7th – the night before his historic election as President of the United States. Finucane notes:

It was the night before the 1960 election and thousands of people flooded the Boston Garden for a homecoming rally for the young, charismatic Massachusetts senator who had just finished months crisscrossing the country running for president.

John F. Kennedy spoke to a roaring sea of supporters gathered before him. “So I come here tonight,” he called out, his voice growing louder. “I thank you for your past support. I ask you to join us tomorrow, and most of all, I ask you to join us in all the tomorrows yet to come, in building America, moving America, picking this country of ours up and sending it into the Sixties.”

Black-and-white footage of his speech from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester shows Kennedy’s shoulders still sprinkled with confetti as he addressed the crowd. It’s a tantalizing window into a night when Kennedy was poised to become a legend — a promising, beloved president whose life would be cut short by an assassin’s bullet.

In commemoration of  the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy’s victory – Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino has declared Monday as “John Fitzgerald Kennedy Victory Day” in the City of Boston.

Read the full Boston Globe article and see the Kennedy Library video clip of JFK click here.