WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will visit John F. Kennedy’s gravesite and honor two of Kennedy’s lasting initiatives as the United States observes the 50th anniversary of his assassination in the coming week.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, will be accompanied by former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton at a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon.

Also that day, Obama will be joined by scores of prominent Americans who have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kennedy established the modern version of the medal, the highest award the US bestows on civilians, in the months before his death.

He was killed two weeks before he planned to honor the inaugural group of recipients, and it fell to President Lyndon Johnson to preside over the ceremony at the White House on the day Kennedy’s family was moving out.

Since then more than 500 have received the medal.

Obama will present the award Wednesday to the 2013 recipients, including Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, the late astronaut Sally Ride, women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem, baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, country music singer Loretta Lynn and 10 others.

On Wednesday evening, Obama plans a speech on Kennedy’s legacy of service with a dinner at the Smithsonian American History Museum attended by current and past recipients of the medal.