Too Soon?

(SOMBER CONTENT)

by George Barany

This 19x16 "mid-week level" puzzle takes a somber look at an event that changed America, 50 years ago (pictorial hint to the right).  We were set to release the puzzle on November 22, 2013, an exact anniversary (even same day of the week), but opted not to.  Instead, the puzzle was released on May 29, 2014, a somewhat happier anniversary. After completing the puzzle (spoiler), read more about our thought process [including links to two published puzzles that covered complementary territory], by clicking here. 

Click here (two pages) or here (one page, for those with good eyesight) to view or download the puzzle in PDF format; here to download it as a puz file; here to download it as an ipuz file [requires the free Puzzazz app to solve]; here to solve the puzzle interactively (thanks to Jim Horne); here for the solution. We thank Ralph Bunker, Noam Elkies, Michael Hanko, Brent Hartzell, Martin Herbach, Ben Jones, Tom Pepper, Alex Vratsanos, and Tom Williams for their perceptive comments during beta testing.

If you want to tell others about this particular page, refer them to
http://tinyurl.com/historicdaypuz

More puzzles here (all), here (political), and here (tributes).

E-mail barany@umn.edu to be added to a bcc distribution list.