Dealey Plaza in the context of Main Street District, Dallas

A hillock or knoll is a small hill, usually separated from a larger group of hills such as a range. Hillocks are similar in their distribution and size to small mesas or buttes. This particular formation occurs often in Great Britain and China. A similar type of landform in the Scandinavian countries goes by the name "kulle" or "bakke" (depending on the country) and is contrary to the above phenomena formed when glaciers polish down hard, crystalline bedrock of gneiss or granites, leaving a rounded rocky hillock with sparse vegetation.

One of the most famous knolls is the one near John F. Kennedy's point of assassination, the grassy knoll, in Dealey Plaza of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the source of many prominent conspiracy theories regarding the circumstances of his assassination.

The West End Historic District of Dallas, Texas, is a historic district that includes a 67.5-acre (27.3 ha) area in northwest downtown, generally north of Commerce, east of I-35E, west of Lamar and south of the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. It is south of Victory Park, west of the Arts, City Center, and Main Street districts, and north of the Government and Reunion districts. A portion of the district is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as Westend Historic District. A smaller area is also a Dallas Landmark District. The far western part of the district belongs to the Dealey Plaza Historic District, a National Historic Landmark around structures and memorials associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was hastily sworn in as president two hours and eight minutes later aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field.

After the assassination, Oswald returned home to retrieve a pistol; he shot and killed a lone Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit shortly afterwards. Around 70 minutes after Kennedy and Connally were shot, Oswald was apprehended by the Dallas Police Department and charged under Texas state law with the murders of Kennedy and Tippit. Two days later, as live television cameras covered Oswald being moved through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters, he was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Like Kennedy, Oswald was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he soon died. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though the decision was overturned on appeal, and Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial.

The Main Street District of downtown Dallas, Texas (United States) runs along Main Street and is bounded by Elm Street one block north, Commerce St. one block south, N. Lamar St. to the west, and US 75/I-45 (I-345) elevated highway to the east. The district is the spine of downtown Dallas, and connects many of the adjoining business and entertainment districts. The Main Street District excludes a small portion at the western end of the three parallel streets, which is where the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial and Dealey Plaza are situated. That area falls within the neighboring West End Historic District.

The Texas School Book Depository, later known as the Dallas County Administration Building and now "The Sixth Floor Museum", is a seven-floor building facing Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was working as an employee at the building when he assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Official government investigations concluded that Oswald shot Kennedy from a sixth floor window on the building's southeastern corner. The building, located at 411 Elm Street on the northwest corner of Elm and North Houston Streets in downtown Dallas, is a Texas Historic Landmark.