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On July 18, 1969, after leaving a party, U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s steered his Oldsmobile sedan off a narrow bridge on Chappaquiddick Island on the eastern end of Martha’s Vineyard.
His passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker for Robert Kennedy, who had been assassinated the previous year in Los Angeles during the Democratic presidential primary, drowned. Kennedy said he tried to rescue Kopechne from the submerged car.
Kennedy waited 10 hours before reporting the accident to police, citing shock and a concussion. Kennedy eventually pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, receiving a suspended sentence of two months in jail.
Kennedy remained in the U.S. Senate until his death in 2009.