John F. Kennedy | whitehouse.gov Air Force One John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States (1961-1963), the youngest man elected to the office. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest President to die. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die. Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history. In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President. His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty. Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation.

His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society. He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained. Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation's military strength, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe. Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away.

The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail. Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race--a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of "a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion." His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. For more information about President Kennedy, please visit John F. Kennedy - President of the United States (POTUS) John F. Kennedy John A. Gronouski, Jr. (1963) Secretary of the Interior Notable Events: 1960 The first joint radio-television broadcast of a U.S. Presidential debate was held on September 26. It was between Kennedy and 1961 The U.S.

sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba was attempted without success. Nikita Khrushchev, the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, ordered the creation of the Berlin Wall in June to divide Soviet-controlled East Berlin from West Berlin, which was part of the free and democratic West Germany. 1963 The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed on August 6 by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas. Internet Biographies: John F. Kennedy -- from The American President From the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, in addition to information on the Presidents themselves, they have first lady and cabinet member biographies, listings of presidential staff and advisers, and timelines detailing significant events in the lives of each administration. Tourist information for the 1994 Conference on High Performance Computing & Communications included this biography. Historical Documents: This speech was never given. Media Resources: Sound recordings from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library . Excerpts from his Inaugural Address, his address to the United Nations, and others.

Audio & Video JFK Assassination Homepage Created by Ralph Schuster, this is one of many conspiracy sites on the Internet on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In addition to the author's personal opinions, there is other useful information here -- a film and video library, an account of the events of November 22, 1963, the text of the Warren Report, and links to other JFK assassination sites. Sixth Floor Museum Located on the Sixth Floor of the former Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, Texas, this site is believed to be the location where Kennedy's assassin fired upon the presidential motorcade. Now a museum dedicated to the life of Kennedy. Tourist information is available. Points of Interest: Kennedy's speech to the students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on October 14, 1960 was the start of the Peace Corps. In his speech to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961, Kennedy set the goal of landing a man on the moon by 1969 for the United States's Space Program (NASA).

Kennedy gave a famous speech in West Berlin in June 1963 that emphasized the importance of the "free world" fighting the "Communist world". Two memorable phrases that he spoke in German were: "Lass�sie nach Berlin kommen," or "Let them come to Berlin"; and "Ish bin ein Bearleener," or "I am a Berliner." Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas. He had spent little more than a thousand days in office before being assassinated. In 1965, the report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (also known as the Warren Commission) found that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, fatally shot Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Three other government investigations were later conducted. All three agreed with the Warren Commission's conclusions that Oswald's shots did kill Kennedy. However, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1979 also concluded that another shooter fired upon Kennedy from the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll and missed. The existence of a second shooter and many other conclusions in these investigations are very controversial.

Previous President: The 35th US President - John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy George W. Bush John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Democrat, was elected the thirty-fifth President of the United States (1961-1963). This handsome, eloquent congressman defeated Richard Nixon for the presidency, partly as a result of the first televised debates. Born into the family of wealthy financier, Joseph Kennedy, on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, John Kennedy was the first President born in the 20th century. In 1953, he married elegant socialite Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. This charismatic young couple created the aura of what one reporter called "Camelot" from a Broadway play of the same name. While recovering from a spinal operation in 1956, Jack Kennedy had written "Profiles in Courage, " which contained biographical sketches of political heroes, and for which he received a Pulitzer Prize in 1957. Kennedy became, at the age of forty-three, the youngest man, as well as the first Roman Catholic, to be elected to the United States presidency.

Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940, and became noted for "Why England Slept," a publication he wrote about Britain's lack of preparedness at the onset of World War II. Later to emerge as a war hero, initially Kennedy was turned down by the army because of a back injury. After doing special exercises, he finally passed the United States Navy physical examination and was given the command of a PT boat in the Pacific. He was distinguished for bravery after rescuing several crewmen when his boat was run over by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands. For four days they swam. They were finally rescued after a message Kennedy had carved into a coconut was found. For his heroic acts he received both the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Medals. Kennedy was returned home for medical attention. After his recovery he entered politics. A Democrat, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1946. While serving as a representative, he focused mainly on domestic issues. In 1952 he was elected to the United States Senate, and in 1958 he was reelected with the largest margin of victory ever recorded in a Massachusetts senatorial contest.

After not being nominated Adlai Stevenson's running mate in 1956 as he had hoped, Jack Kennedy began preparing himself for the 1960 Presidential election. During the 1960 campaign, the issues of defense and economic stagnation were raised during televised debates. Sixty-nine million people voted in that election, setting a new record. Kennedy won with a narrow margin of only 113,000 votes in one of the closest elections in the nation's history. His election began a period of optimism and idealism in the United States. He challenged the nation in his inaugural address with the famous phrase "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." He established the Peace Corps and was a strong advocate for Civil Rights reform. In foreign affairs, things got off to a rocky start, when he approved the failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs, a major embarrassment. He laid the blame for this fiasco at the feet of the CIA Director and fired him.

Kennedy's concern about the potential spread of Communism led him, in 1961, to establish the Alliance for Progress that was designed to give aid and to support the economic health of Latin America. Redemption came later when, in what came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy forced Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to remove Soviet missiles from the island of Cuba, only ninety miles away. Kennedy put up a blockade around Cuba, not allowing the Russian ships to enter. It was one of the most tense times in history, as the world stood at the brink of nuclear war. At the eleventh hour they turned around and war was prevented. Khrushchev agreed to remove the nuclear weapons from Cuba in exchange for the United States removing the blockade and Kennedy's promise not to invade Cuba. In 1963 a hot line was established between Moscow and the United States so the leaders of the two super powers could communicate in times of crisis. When a wall separating East and West Berlin was built, German soldiers blocked the route through East Germany until Kennedy sent 1,500 troops in to reopen it. The famous Checkpoint Charlie was made to allow passage from East to West.

This was a personal and political victory for Kennedy. The Soviet Union and Great Britain agreed on a nuclear test-ban treaty in July of 1963. Kennedy's domestic policies were called the New Frontier. He strongly supported space exploration and the Civil Rights movement. It was during the Kennedy administration that Alan Shepard became the first man to go into space and John Glenn as the first to orbit the Earth. (Glenn returned to space in 1998 on the now famous space shuttle). When his major proposals for economic stimulus, tax reform, aid to education, and broadened welfare got bogged down in Congress, Kennedy said, "Every President must endure a gap between what he would like and what is possible." He was successful, however, in getting the steel industry to maintain prices, and he strongly supported the race to the moon. Kennedy supported integration in schools and sent troops to put down riots after the United States Supreme Court ordered the University of Mississippi to accept an African American student. Robert Kennedy, the President's brother, was his Attorney General, and he took the challenge of Civil Rights very seriously.

Both of the Kennedy brothers felt strongly that African American's should have the right to vote, to attend public school, to have equal access to jobs, and to have access to public accommodations. Much of this was accomplished with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Kennedy's brought culture to the White House. They held events such as a dinner for all American Nobel Prize winners. They renovated the White House, and the First Lady gave a televised tour to the American people. While campaigning in Dallas on November 22, 1963, Kennedy was shot in the head, and rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Lee Harvey Oswald, was captured a few hours later and accused of the crime. He was killed two days later when he was shot on national television by a man named Jack Ruby. There are often comparisons made between John Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was elected in 1860, and Kennedy was elected in 1960. They both have last names composed of seven letters.

Each was killed on a Friday while their wives were with them; both were concerned with Civil Rights; both had had their elections investigated for irregularities; both were succeeded by men named Johnson; both had served in the United States Senate; and both were carried on the same caisson. JFK.'s Vice President, Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908 and Lincoln's vice President, Andrew Johnson, was born in 1808; both Johnson's had 13 letters in their first and last names and both were southern Democrats. Lincoln's secretary, Kennedy, warned him not to go to the theater, and Kennedy's secretary, Lincoln, warned him not to go to Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth were both southerners who favored unpopular ideas; both were murdered before they could be tried; each had 15 letters in his name; and they were born 100 years apart. Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and hid in a warehouse; Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and hid in a theater. There was an uncirculated penny made, which was stamped with Kennedy's profile looking at Lincoln. John Kennedy is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, where an eternal flame burns on his grave.

Presidents of the United States - President John F. Kennedy - TheUSAonline.com Presidents of the United States John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963), often referred to as Jack Kennedy or JFK, was the 35th (1961 - 1963) President of the United States. Order: January 20 , 1961 - November 22 , 1963 Followed: Lyndon Johnson Early life Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. In 1935, he studied at the London School of Economics, then moved to Princeton University, but was forced to leave the latter during Christmas break because of an attack of jaundice. He then attended Harvard University, enrolling in the fall of 1936, but he severely injured his back playing football. He traveled to Europe twice during his study at Harvard. The second was to Great Britain, while his father was serving as ambassador to that country.

Kennedy returned, and wrote his honors thesis on analyzing the British portion of the Munich Pact of 1938. He graduated cum laude from Harvard in June 1940. Military service In the spring of 1941, Kennedy volunteered for the US Army, but was rejected, mainly because of his injured back. However, he worked to strengthen himself during the summer, and was accepted by the US Navy in September of that year. He participated in various commands during World War II , but his most famous one was during March 1943. With the rank of lieutenant, he received command of a patrol torpedo boat, or PT boat. While his boat, PT-109, was cruising west of New Georgia (near the Solomon Islands on August 2, it was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. He was thrown across the deck onto his already injured back, but somehow rallied the survivors onto a nearby small island, himself towing a wounded man three miles through the ocean. After a few days of searching, he found two friendly islanders, whom he sent for aid with a message carved on a coconut. For these actions, Kennedy received the Purple Heart, Navy Medal and Marine Corps Medal.

However, his back injury had been aggravated after being thrown on his boat, and he also contracted malaria. He was honorably discharged in early 1945, just a few months before the Japanese surrender. In May 2002 a National Geographic expedition found what is believed to be the wreckage of that PT-109 in the Solomon Islands. Early political career After World War II, he entered politics (partly to fill the void of his popular brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., who was killed in the war). When Representative James M. Curley vacated his overwhelmingly Democratic district to become mayor of Boston, Kennedy ran for that seat. After a long and strenuous campaign, he beat the Republican opponent by a large margin. He was reelected two times, but had a mixed voting record, often diverging from then-President Harry S. Truman and the rest of the Democratic Party. In 1952, Kennedy decided to run for the Senate. He defeated the Republican incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., by a margin of about 70,000 votes.

He made good his slogan, "Kennedy will do more for Massachusetts", having voted and passed many ordinances that helped its citizens, especially its businessmen. However, he diverged from his constituents by speaking for censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was most famous for his advantageous manipulation of the Red Scare. Although Kennedy was ill during the 77-22 vote (the other 99 senators all voted), he had spoken repeatedly with the majority. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. He underwent many spinal operations in the two following years, and had a prolonged absence from the Senate. However, while recovering from an operation, he wrote about acts of political courage by eight U.S. Senators, and published the book, Profiles in Courage. This book later received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. When he returned to the Senate in 1955, many critics called him an "untrue liberal ". He had adopted many moderate positions; however, two years later, he adopted an extremely liberal position on labor, but was forced to accept a more moderate bill, the Landrum-Griffin Bill . He then decided to run for the office of President of the United States.

1960 Presidential election On July 13, 1960 the Democratic party nominated him as its candidate for President. Kennedy asked Lyndon B. Johnson, a senator from Texas, to run with him as Vice President. In the general election on November 8, 1960, Kennedy beat Republican Richard Nixon in a very close race. At the age of forty-three, Kennedy was the youngest man elected President and the first Catholic. Theodore H. White 's 1961 book about that election campaign, The Making of the President 1960, was not only a national best-seller but is also often used as a supplementary text in high school and college courses in U.S. government and history. When he was elected, he became the youngest person to be elected president ( Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest to be president, but he first came to office by succeeding William McKinley when the latter was assassinated). President of the United States John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural speech he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens.

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, he said. He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the 'common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. President Kennedy, together with his wife and two children, brought a new, youthful spirit to the White House. The Kennedys believed that the White House should be a place to celebrate American history, culture, and achievement. They invited artists, writers, scientists, poets, musicians, actors, and athletes to visit them. Jacqueline Kennedy also shared the same interest in American history as her husband. Gathering the finest art and furniture the United States had produced, she restored all the rooms in the White House to make it a place that truly reflected America's history with a sense of beauty. Everyone was impressed and appreciated her hard work. The White House also seemed like a fun place, because of the Kennedys' two young children, Caroline and John-John. There was a pre-school, a swimming pool, and a tree-house outside on the White House lawn. President Kennedy was probably the busiest man in the country, but he still found time to laugh and play with his children.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was probably the most important event during Kennedy's presidency. Through skill and steadfast thinking, Kennedy was able to both control the warmongers in the cabinet who wanted war (to redeem themselves for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba ), as well as the ambitious Communist organizations from using threat to gain strength (much like Hitler did 25 years early through appeasement ). Many people consider the Cuban Missile Crisis the closest point the world came to Nuclear War. The crisis all began on October 14, 1962 when spy planes took photographs of the contruction site of a Nuclear missile silo in Cuba. If Kennedy attacked the sites, then it would have killed many Russians, which would lead to Nuclear War. If the U.S. did nothing, it would appear to the world that the U.S. was weak. A peace settlement was nearly impossible. Everyone remembered the days leading to WW2 where appeasement only made the agressor more agressive. A temporary solution was found, a blockade of war materials. A solution came a week later, while the world stood on the brink. The Soviet Union agreed secretly to remove the missiles if the U.S.

both agreed never to invade Cuba, as well as remove the missiles 6 months later from Cuba. Kennedy was honored for decades after the crisis for preventing the possible war. President Kennedy worked long hours, getting up at seven and not going to bed until eleven or twelve at night, or later. He read six newspapers while he ate breakfast, had meetings with important people throughout the day, and read reports from his advisers. He wanted to make sure that he made the best decisions for his country. I am asking each of you to be new pioneers in that New Frontier, he said. The New Frontier was not a place but a way of thinking and acting. President Kennedy wanted the United States to move forward into the future with new discoveries in science and improvements in education, employment and other fields. He wanted democracy and freedom for the whole world. One of the first things President Kennedy did was to create the Peace Corps. Through this program, which still exists today, Americans can volunteer where help is needed. They can help in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction. Many young men and women have served as Peace Corps volunteers and have won the respect of many people throughout the world.

President Kennedy was also eager for the United States to lead the way in exploring space. The Soviet Union was ahead of the United States in its knowledge of space and President Kennedy was determined to catch up. He said, No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space. Kennedy was the first President to ask Congress to approve more than twenty two billion dollars for Project Apollo, which had the goal of landing an American man on the moon before the end of the decade. President Kennedy had to deal with many serious problems here in the United States. The biggest problem of all had to do with racial discrimination. The US Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that segregation in public schools would no longer be permitted. Black children and White children should be able to go to school together. This was now the law of the land. However, there were many schools, especially in southern states, that did not obey this law. There was also racial segregation on buses, in restaurants, movie theaters, and other public places. Thousands of Americans joined together, people of all races and backgrounds, to peacefully protest this injustice. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the famous leaders of the movement for civil rights.

Many civil rights leaders didn't think President Kennedy was supportive enough of their efforts. The President believed that holding public protests would only anger many white people and make it even more difficult to convince the members of Congress who didn't agree with him to pass civil rights laws. By June 11, 1963, however, President Kennedy decided that the time had come to take stronger action to help the civil rights struggle. He proposed a new Civil Rights bill to the Congress and he went on television asking Americans to end racism. One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free, he said. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds on the principle that all men are created equal. President Kennedy made it clear that all Americans, regardless of their skin color, should enjoy a good and happy life in the United States. For various reasons, Kennedy was, during the time he served, perhaps the most popular president in U.S. history.

He was a handsome, photogenic man who seemed open and accessible, and his administration marked a notable increase in direct media exposure of the president to the public at large, through television broadcasts from the Oval Office, televised press conferences , and numerous photo spreads in popular magazines. His glamorous wife " Jackie " was as newsworthy as he was, and the way they handled personal tragedies, especially the death of their newborn son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy in August 1963, enhanced their public image. The "charisma" Kennedy and his family projected posthumously led to the figurative designation of " Camelot " for his administration. Information released after his death leaves no doubt that he had at least one, and probably several extramarital affairs while in office, including liaisons in the White House . Such things were not then considered fit for publication, and in Kennedy's case, they were never publicly discussed. Assassination and Aftermath President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

This was a shattering and extraordinary event in the lives of most Americans who lived through it; "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?" was a frequent question in the years that followed, and could still be heard for many decades afterwards. Lee Harvey Oswald, apprehended for the crime, was himself fatally shot by Jack Ruby before he could be formally charged or brought to trial. Four days after Kennedy and Oswald were killed, President Lyndon Johnson created the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination. On March 14, 1967 Kennedy's body was moved to a permanent burial place and memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy's life and the subsequent conspiracy theories surrounding his death have been the inspiration for many films. Recent ones include Nigel Turner's 1988 mini series The Men Who Killed Kennedy, Oliver Stone 's 1991 blockbuster, JFK, and 1993 's JFK: Reckless Youth , which looked at Kennedy's early years. Kennedy was the most recent Democratic president to push for income tax cuts to improve the economy. He was also the most recent Northern Democrat to win the Presidency.

In November of 2002 long-secret medical records were made public, revealing Kennedy's physical ailments were more severe than previously thought. He was in constant pain from fractured vertebrae despite multiple medications, in addition to suffering from severe digestive problems and Addison's disease . Kennedy received multiple injections of procaine before press conferences in order to appear healthy. Kennedy's portrait appears on the U.S. half dollar. Cabinet appointments Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Abraham A. Ribicoff (1961-1962) John F. Kennedy - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com John F. Kennedy A+E Networks Introduction Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United States, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to hold that office. He was born into one of America’s wealthiest families and parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a military hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952. As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere.

He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. His assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, sent shockwaves around the world and turned the all-too-human Kennedy into a larger-than-life heroic figure. To this day, historians continue to rank him among the best-loved presidents in American history. Google John F. Kennedy’s Early Life Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts , John F. Kennedy (known as Jack) was the second of nine children. His parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy, were members of two of Boston’s most prominent Irish Catholic political families. Despite persistent health problems throughout his childhood and teenage years (he would later be diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder called Addison’s disease), Jack led a privileged youth, attending private schools such as Canterbury and Choate and spending summers in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod. Joe Kennedy, a hugely successful businessman and an early supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt , was appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934 and in 1937 was named U.S. ambassador to Great Britain.

As a student at Harvard University, Jack traveled in Europe as his father’s secretary. His senior thesis about British’s unpreparedness for war was later published as an acclaimed book, “Why England Slept” (1940). Did You Know? John F. Kennedy's Senate career got off to a rocky start when he refused to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy, a personal friend of the Kennedy family whom the Senate voted to censure in 1954 for his relentless pursuit of suspected communists. In the end, though he planned to vote against McCarthy, Kennedy missed the vote when he was hospitalized after back surgery. Jack joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and two years later was sent to the South Pacific, where he was given command of a Patrol-Torpedo (PT) boat. In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer struck the craft, PT-109, in the Solomon Islands. Kennedy helped some of his marooned crew back to safety, and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism.

His older brother, Joe Jr., was not so fortunate: He was killed in August 1944 when his Navy airplane exploded on a secret mission against a German rocket-launching site. A grieving Joe Sr. told Jack it was his duty to fulfill the destiny once intended for Joe Jr.: to become the first Catholic president of the United States. JFK’s Beginnings in Politics Abandoning plans to be a journalist, Jack left the Navy by the end of 1944. Less than a year later, he was back in Boston preparing for a run for Congress in 1946. As a moderately conservative Democrat, and backed by his father’s fortune, Jack won his party’s nomination handily and carried the mostly working-class Eleventh District by nearly three to one over his Republican opponent in the general election. He entered the 80th Congress in January 1947, at the age of 29, and immediately attracted attention (as well as some criticism from older members of the Washington establishment) for his youthful appearance and relaxed, informal style.

Kennedy won reelection to the House of Representatives in 1948 and 1950, and in 1952 ran successfully for the Senate, defeating the popular Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. On September 12, 1953, Kennedy married the beautiful socialite and journalist Jacqueline (Jackie) Lee Bouvier. Two years later, he was forced to undergo a painful operation on his back. While recovering from the surgery, Jack wrote another best-selling book, “Profiles in Courage,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. (The book was later revealed to be mostly the work of Kennedy’s longtime aide, Theodore Sorenson.) Kennedy’s Road to Presidency After nearly earning his party’s nomination for vice president (under Adlai Stevenson) in 1956, Kennedy announced his candidacy for president on January 2, 1960. He defeated a primary challenge from the more liberal Hubert Humphrey and chose the Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas , as his running mate. In the general election, Kennedy faced a difficult battle against his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, a two-term vice president under the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower .

Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon and the status quo, Kennedy benefited from his performance (and telegenic appearance) in the first-ever televised debates, watched by millions of viewers. In November’s election, Kennedy won by a narrow margin–less than 120,000 out of some 70 million votes cast–becoming the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States. With his beautiful young wife and their two small children (Caroline, born in 1957, and John Jr., born just weeks after the election), Kennedy lent an unmistakable aura of youth and glamour to the White House . In his inaugural address, given on January 20, 1961, the new president called on his fellow Americans to work together in the pursuit of progress and the elimination of poverty, but also in the battle to win the ongoing Cold War against communism around the world.

Kennedy’s famous closing words expressed the need for cooperation and sacrifice on the part of the American people: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Challenges An early crisis in the foreign affairs arena occurred in April 1961, when Kennedy approved the plan to send 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles in an amphibious landing at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. Intended to spur a rebellion that would overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro , the mission ended in failure, with nearly all of the exiles captured or killed. That June, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss the city of Berlin, which had been divided after World War II between Allied and Soviet control. Two months later, East German troops began erecting a wall to divide the city. Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and would deliver one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963. Kennedy clashed again with Khrushchev in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis.

After learning that the Soviet Union was constructing a number of nuclear and long-range missile sites in Cuba that could pose a threat to the continental United States, Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba. The tense standoff lasted nearly two weeks before Khrushchev agreed to dismantle Soviet missile sites in Cuba in return for America’s promise not to invade the island and the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey and other sites close to Soviet borders. In July 1963, Kennedy won his greatest foreign affairs victory when Khrushchev agreed to join him and Britain’s Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in signing a nuclear test ban treaty. In Southeast Asia, however, Kennedy’s desire to curb the spread of communism led him to escalate U.S. involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, even as privately he expressed his dismay over the situation. Kennedy’s Leadership at Home During his first year in office, Kennedy oversaw the launch of the Peace Corps, which would send young volunteers to underdeveloped countries all over the world. Otherwise, he was unable to achieve much of his proposed legislation during his lifetime, including two of his biggest priorities: income tax cuts and a civil rights bill.

Kennedy was slow to commit himself to the civil rights cause, but was eventually forced into action, sending federal troops to support the desegregation of the University of Mississippi after riots there left two dead and many others injured. The following summer, Kennedy announced his intention to propose a comprehensive civil rights bill and endorsed the massive March on Washington that took place that August. Kennedy was an enormously popular president, both at home and abroad, and his family drew famous comparisons to King Arthur’s court at Camelot. His brother Bobby served as his attorney general, while the youngest Kennedy son, Edward (Ted), was elected to Jack’s former Senate seat in 1962. Jackie Kennedy became an international icon of style, beauty and sophistication, though stories of her husband’s numerous marital infidelities (and his personal association with members of organized crime) would later emerge to complicate the Kennedys’ idyllic image. JFK’s Assassination On November 22, 1963, the president and his wife landed in Dallas; he had spoken in San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth the day before.

From the airfield, the party then traveled in a motorcade to the Dallas Trade Mart, the site of Jack’s next speaking engagement. Shortly after 12:30 p.m., as the motorcade was passing through downtown Dallas, shots rang out; Kennedy was struck twice, in the neck and head, and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital. Twenty-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, known to have Communist sympathies, was arrested for the killing but was shot and fatally wounded two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being led to jail. Almost immediately, alternative theories of Kennedy’s assassination emerged–including conspiracies run by the KGB, the Mafia and the U.S. military-industrial complex, among others. A presidential commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that Oswald had acted alone, but speculation and debate over the assassination has persisted. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today.

Tags 1000+ images about 1961-1963 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States on Pinterest | John kennedy, Jfk and Jackie kennedy Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas 1961-1963 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States "There will be great presidents again, but there will never be another Camelot." ~ Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy 1.04k Pins217 Followers RTÉ Radio 1: Documentary on One - 35th President of the United States Documentary on One 35th President of the United States A look at the coming to power of John F Kennedy, examining the family background and early life of one of the most famous political figures of the 20th century. (Broadcast 1963) Rate this doc Photo Gallery 35th President of the United States John F Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States of America on January 20th 1961.

His inaugural address included the infamous line 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'. His short term in office was littered with many of the worlds most famous historic events - The Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the early stages of the Vietnam War and the Space Race. This documentary was first broadcast 5 months before his death in Dallas, Texas in November 1963. This account examines his family history and the origins of the man who became one of the most important political figures of the 20th centruy. It looks as his early life, how he excelled at Harvard college studying political science and his time spent serving with the US military. Produced and Presented by Norris Davidson Readers: Frank O'Dwyer, Jim Norton and Brendan Cauldwell First Broadcast 25th June 1963 An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries. Facebook John F. Kennedy | president of United States | Britannica.com president of United States Thomas Hinman Moorer John F.

Kennedy, in full John Fitzgerald Kennedy, byname JFK (born May 29, 1917, Brookline , Massachusetts , U.S.—died November 22, 1963, Dallas , Texas ), 35th president of the United States (1961–63), who faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. He was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America .) John F. Kennedy. Key events in the life of John F. Kennedy. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Early life The second of nine children, Kennedy was reared in a family that demanded intense physical and intellectual competition among the siblings—the family’s touch football games at their Hyannis Port retreat later became legendary—and was schooled in the religious teachings of the Roman Catholic church and the political precepts of the Democratic Party .

His father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy , had acquired a multimillion-dollar fortune in banking, bootlegging, shipbuilding, and the film industry, and as a skilled player of the stock market. His mother, Rose, was the daughter of John F. (“Honey Fitz”) Fitzgerald, onetime mayor of Boston. They established trust funds for their children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence. After serving as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission , Joseph Kennedy became the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, and for six months in 1938 John served as his secretary, drawing on that experience to write his senior thesis at Harvard University (B.S., 1940) on Great Britain’s military unpreparedness. He then expanded that thesis into a best-selling book, Why England Slept (1940). The birthplace of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Brookline, Massachusetts. D. Hanley/Photo Researchers Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent John Kennedy himself had barely escaped death in battle. Commanding a patrol torpedo (PT) boat, he was gravely injured when a Japanese destroyer sank it in the Solomon Islands.

Marooned far behind enemy lines, he led his men back to safety and was awarded the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. He also returned to active command at his own request. (These events were later depicted in a Hollywood film, PT 109 [1963], that contributed to the Kennedy mystique.) However, the further injury to his back, which had bothered him since his teens, never really healed. Despite operations in 1944, 1954, and 1955, he was in pain for much of the rest of his life. He also suffered from Addison’s disease , though this affliction was publicly concealed. “At least one-half of the days he spent on this earth,” wrote his brother Robert, “were days of intense physical pain.” (After he became president, Kennedy combated the pain with injections of amphetamines—then thought to be harmless and used by more than a few celebrities for their energizing effect. According to some reports, both Kennedy and the first lady became heavily dependent on these injections through weekly use.) None of this prevented Kennedy from undertaking a strenuous life in politics. His family expected him to run for public office and to win.

Congressman and senator USA Facts Kennedy did not disappoint his family; in fact, he never lost an election. His first opportunity came in 1946, when he ran for Congress. Although still physically weak from his war injuries, he campaigned aggressively, bypassing the Democratic organization in the Massachusetts 11th congressional district and depending instead upon his family, college friends, and fellow navy officers. In the Democratic primary he received nearly double the vote of his nearest opponent; in the November election he overwhelmed the Republican candidate. He was only 29. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Kennedy served three terms in the House of Representatives (1947–53) as a bread-and-butter liberal. He advocated better working conditions, more public housing, higher wages, lower prices, cheaper rents, and more Social Security for the aged. In foreign policy he was an early supporter of Cold War policies. He backed the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan but was sharply critical of the Truman administration’s record in Asia. He accused the State Department of trying to force Chiang Kai-shek into a coalition with Mao Zedong .

“What our young men had saved,” he told the House on January 25, 1949, “our diplomats and our President have frittered away.” His congressional district in Boston was a safe seat, but Kennedy was too ambitious to remain long in the House of Representatives. In 1952 he ran for the U.S. Senate against the popular incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. His mother and sisters Eunice, Patricia, and Jean held “Kennedy teas” across the state . Thousands of volunteers flocked to help, including his 27-year-old brother Robert, who managed the campaign. That fall the Republican presidential candidate, General Dwight D. Eisenhower , carried Massachusetts by 208,000 votes; but Kennedy defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes. Less than a year later, on September 12, 1953, Kennedy enhanced his electoral appeal by marrying Jacqueline Lee Bouvier ( Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis ). Twelve years younger than Kennedy and from a socially prominent family, the beautiful “Jackie” was the perfect complement to the handsome politician; they made a glamorous couple. Jacqueline Kennedy, 1961.

White House photo/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Pres. John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, in the Blue Room of the White House at … Robert Knudsen—Official White House Photo/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library As a senator, Kennedy quickly won a reputation for responsiveness to requests from constituents , except on certain occasions when the national interest was at stake. In 1954 he was the only New England senator to approve an extension of President Eisenhower’s reciprocal-trade powers, and he vigorously backed the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, despite the fact that over a period of 20 years no Massachusetts senator or congressman had ever voted for it. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest To the disappointment of liberal Democrats, Kennedy soft-pedaled the demagogic excesses of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin , who in the early 1950s conducted witch-hunting campaigns against government workers accused of being communists. Kennedy’s father liked McCarthy, contributed to his campaign, and even entertained him in the family’s compound at Hyannis Port on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Kennedy himself disapproved of McCarthy, but, as he once observed, “Half my people in Massachusetts look on McCarthy as a hero.” Yet, on the Senate vote over condemnation of McCarthy’s conduct (1954), Kennedy expected to vote against him. He prepared a speech explaining why, but he was absent on the day of the vote. Later, at a National Press Club Gridiron dinner, costumed reporters sang, “Where were you, John, where were you, John, when the Senate censured Joe?” Actually, John had been in a hospital, in critical condition after back surgery. For six months afterward he lay strapped to a board in his father’s house in Palm Beach , Florida. It was during this period that he worked on Profiles in Courage (1956), an account of eight great American political leaders who had defied popular opinion in matters of conscience , which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1957. Although Kennedy was credited as the book’s author, it was later revealed that his assistant Theodore Sorensen had done much of the research and writing.

Back in the Senate, Kennedy led a fight against a proposal to abolish the electoral college, crusaded for labour reform, and became increasingly committed to civil rights legislation. As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the late 1950s, he advocated extensive foreign aid to the emerging nations in Africa and Asia, and he surprised his colleagues by calling upon France to grant Algerian independence. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano During these years his political outlook was moving leftward. Possibly because of their father’s dynamic personality, the sons of Joseph Kennedy matured slowly. Gradually John’s stature among Democrats grew, until he had inherited the legions that had once followed Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, the two-time presidential candidate who by appealing to idealism had transformed the Democratic Party and made Kennedy’s rise possible. Presidential candidate and president Kennedy had nearly become Stevenson’s vice presidential running mate in 1956. The charismatic young New Englander’s near victory and his televised speech of concession (Estes Kefauver won the vice presidential nomination) brought him into some 40 million American homes. Overnight he had become one of the best-known political figures in the country.

Already his campaign for the 1960 nomination had begun. One newspaperman called him a “young man in a hurry.” Kennedy felt that he had to redouble his efforts because of the widespread conviction that no Roman Catholic candidate could be elected president. He made his 1958 race for reelection to the Senate a test of his popularity in Massachusetts. His margin of victory was 874,608 votes—the largest ever in Massachusetts politics and the greatest of any senatorial candidate that year. John F. Kennedy, 1961. AP A steady stream of speeches and periodical profiles followed, with photographs of him and his wife appearing on many a magazine cover. Kennedy’s carefully calculated pursuit of the presidency years before the first primary established a practice that became the norm for candidates seeking the nation’s highest office. To transport him and his staff around the country, his father bought a 40-passenger Convair aircraft. His brothers Robert (“Bobby,” or “Bob”) and Edward (“Teddy,” or “Ted”) pitched in.

After having graduated from Harvard University (1948) and from the University of Virginia Law School (1951), Bobby had embarked on a career as a Justice Department attorney and counsellor for congressional committees. Ted likewise had graduated from Harvard (1956) and from Virginia Law School (1959). Both men were astute campaigners. John F. Kennedy. © Arthur Rickerby—Black Star/PNI In January 1960 John F. Kennedy formally announced his presidential candidacy. His chief rivals were the senators Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. Kennedy knocked Humphrey out of the campaign and dealt the religious taboo against Roman Catholics a blow by winning the primary in Protestant West Virginia . He tackled the Catholic issue again, by avowing his belief in the separation of church and state in a televised speech before a group of Protestant ministers in Houston , Texas. Nominated on the first ballot, he balanced the Democratic ticket by choosing Johnson as his running mate. In his acceptance speech Kennedy declared, “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier.” Thereafter the phrase “New Frontier” was associated with his presidential programs.

Scenes from the 1960 Democratic Party primary elections, which U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy used to … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Scenes from the 1960 Democratic National Convention, which nominated as candidate for president … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Another phrase—“the Kennedy style”—encapsulated the candidate’s emerging identity. It was glamorous and elitist, an amalgam of his father’s wealth, John Kennedy’s charisma and easy wit, Jacqueline Kennedy’s beauty and fashion sense (the suits and pillbox hats she wore became widely popular), the charm of their children and relatives, and the erudition of the Harvard advisers who surrounded him (called the “best and brightest” by author David Halberstam ). Button from John F. Kennedy’s 1960 U.S. presidential campaign. Americana/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Kennedy won the general election, narrowly defeating the Republican candidate, Vice President Richard M. Nixon , by a margin of less than 120,000 out of some 70,000,000 votes cast.

Many observers, then and since, believed vote fraud contributed to Kennedy’s victory, especially in the critical state of Illinois, where Joe Kennedy enlisted the help of the ever-powerful Richard J. Daley , mayor of Chicago. Nixon had defended the Eisenhower record; Kennedy, whose slogan had been “Let’s get this country moving again,” had deplored unemployment, the sluggish economy, the so-called missile gap (a presumed Soviet superiority over the United States in the number of nuclear-armed missiles), and the new communist government in Havana. A major factor in the campaign was a unique series of four televised debates between the two men; an estimated 85–120 million Americans watched one or more of the debates. Both men showed a firm grasp of the issues, but Kennedy’s poise in front of the camera, his tony Harvard accent, and his good looks (in contrast to Nixon’s “five o’clock shadow”) convinced many viewers that he had won the debate. As president, Kennedy continued to exploit the new medium, sparkling in precedent-setting televised weekly press conferences. The televised debate between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M.

Nixon was a … Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library Results of the American presidential election, 1960… Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Listen: Kennedy, John F. U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy, delivering his inaugural address, January 20, 1961. He was the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the presidency of the United States. His administration lasted 1,037 days. From the onset he was concerned with foreign affairs . In his memorable inaugural address, he called upon Americans “to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle…against the common enemies of man: tyranny , poverty, disease, and war itself.” He declared: In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it.…The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. U.S. Pres.

John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural address, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1961. CWO Donald Mingfield—U.S. Army Signal Corps/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library John F. Kennedy being sworn in as U.S. president, January 20, 1961. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural address, Washington, D.C., January 20, … © John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Massachusetts The administration’s first brush with foreign affairs was a disaster. In the last year of the Eisenhower presidency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had equipped and trained a brigade of anticommunist Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously advised the new president that this force, once ashore, would spark a general uprising against the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro . But the Bay of Pigs invasion was a fiasco; every man on the beachhead was either killed or captured. Kennedy assumed “sole responsibility” for the setback.

Privately he told his father that he would never again accept a Joint Chiefs recommendation without first challenging it. A group of captured U.S.-backed Cuban exiles, known as Brigade 2506, being lined up by Fidel … Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Listen: Kennedy, John F.; Cuban missile crisis U.S. President John F. Kennedy, delivering a televised address to the nation on Soviet missiles in … The Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev , thought he had taken the young president’s measure when the two leaders met in Vienna in June 1961. Khrushchev ordered a wall built between East and West Berlin and threatened to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany . The president activated National Guard and reserve units, and Khrushchev backed down on his separate peace threat. Kennedy then made a dramatic visit to West Berlin, where he told a cheering crowd, “Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein [I am a] Berliner.’ ” In October 1962 a buildup of Soviet short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles was discovered in Cuba.

Kennedy demanded that the missiles be dismantled; he ordered a “quarantine” of Cuba—in effect, a blockade that would stop Soviet ships from reaching that island. For 13 days nuclear war seemed near; then the Soviet premier announced that the offensive weapons would be withdrawn. (See Cuban missile crisis .) Ten months later Kennedy scored his greatest foreign triumph when Khrushchev and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan of Great Britain joined him in signing the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty . Yet Kennedy’s commitment to combat the spread of communism led him to escalate American involvement in the conflict in Vietnam , where he sent not just supplies and financial assistance, as President Eisenhower had, but 15,000 military advisers as well. Under U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the number of U.S. advisers to the South Vietnamese military … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. President John F. Kennedy announcing the U.S. naval blockade of Cuba on October 22, 1962. © Archive Photos U.S. President John F. Kennedy signing the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, October 7, 1963.

National Archives and Records Administration Overview of the Cuban missile crisis and its effect on Germany, 1962. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz John F. Kennedy visiting West Berlin in June 1963 and delivering his “Ich bin ein … Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz Because of his slender victory in 1960, Kennedy approached Congress warily, and with good reason; Congress was largely indifferent to his legislative program. It approved his Alliance for Progress (Alianza) in Latin America and his Peace Corps , which won the enthusiastic endorsement of thousands of college students. But his two most cherished projects, massive income tax cuts and a sweeping civil rights measure, were not passed until after his death. In May 1961 Kennedy committed the United States to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, and, while he would not live to see this achievement either, his advocacy of the space program contributed to the successful launch of the first American manned spaceflights. President John F. Kennedy rallying the United States to support NASA’s Apollo program to land human … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Historical news footage outlining the goals of the Peace Corps.

Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library He was an immensely popular president, at home and abroad. At times he seemed to be everywhere at once, encouraging better physical fitness, improving the morale of government workers, bringing brilliant advisers to the White House , and beautifying Washington, D.C. His wife joined him as an advocate for American culture . Their two young children, Caroline Bouvier and John F., Jr., were familiar throughout the country. The charm and optimism of the Kennedy family seemed contagious , sparking the idealism of a generation for whom the Kennedy White House became, in journalist Theodore White’s famous analogy , Camelot—the magical court of Arthurian legend , which was celebrated in a popular Broadway musical of the early 1960s. U.S. President John F. Kennedy with first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, 1961. Art Rickerby—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images U.S. President John F. Kennedy attending the dedication of Whiskeytown Dam on the Trinity River in … Art Rickerby—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images Joseph Kennedy, meanwhile, had been incapacitated in Hyannis Port by a stroke, but the other Kennedys were in and out of Washington.

Robert Kennedy, as John’s attorney general, was the second most powerful man in the country. He advised the president on all matters of foreign and domestic policy, national security, and political affairs. In 1962 Ted Kennedy was elected to the president’s former Senate seat in Massachusetts. Their sister Eunice’s husband, Sargent Shriver , became director of the Peace Corps. Their sister Jean’s husband, Stephen Smith, was preparing to manage the Democratic Party’s 1964 presidential campaign. Another sister, Patricia, had married Peter Lawford, an English-born actor who served the family as an unofficial envoy to the entertainment world. All Americans knew who Rose, Jackie, Bobby, and Teddy were, and most could identify Bobby’s wife as Ethel and Teddy’s wife as Joan. But if the first family had become American royalty, its image of perfection would be tainted years later by allegations of marital infidelity by the president (most notably, an affair with motion-picture icon Marilyn Monroe) and of his association with members of organized crime. Assassination President Kennedy believed that his Republican opponent in 1964 would be Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona .

He was convinced that he could bury Goldwater under an avalanche of votes, thus receiving a mandate for major legislative reforms. One obstacle to his plan was a feud in Vice President Johnson’s home state of Texas between Governor John B. Connally, Jr., and Senator Ralph Yarborough, both Democrats. To present a show of unity, the president decided to tour the state with both men. On Friday, November 22, 1963, he and Jacqueline Kennedy were in an open limousine riding slowly in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. At 12:30 pm the president was struck by two rifle bullets, one at the base of his neck and one in the head. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Governor Connally, though also gravely wounded, recovered. Vice President Johnson took the oath as president at 2:38 pm. Lee Harvey Oswald , a 24-year-old Dallas citizen, was accused of the slaying. Two days later Oswald was shot to death by Jack Ruby , a local nightclub owner with connections to the criminal underworld, in the basement of a Dallas police station.

A presidential commission headed by the chief justice of the United States, Earl Warren , later found that neither the sniper nor his killer “was part of any conspiracy , domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy,” but that Oswald had acted alone. The Warren Commission , however, was not able to convincingly explain all the particular circumstances of Kennedy’s murder. In 1979 a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives declared that although the president had undoubtedly been slain by Oswald, acoustic analysis suggested the presence of a second gunman who had missed. But this declaration did little to squelch the theories that Oswald was part of a conspiracy involving either CIA agents angered over Kennedy’s handling of the Bay of Pigs fiasco or members of organized crime seeking revenge for Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s relentless criminal investigations. Kennedy’s assassination, the most notorious political murder of the 20th century, remains a source of bafflement, controversy, and speculation. U.S. President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy minutes before the president was … Bettmann/Corbis President John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession on its way to Arlington National Cemetery, November … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

John Kennedy was dead, but the Kennedy mystique was still alive. Both Robert and Ted ran for president (in 1968 and 1980, respectively). Yet tragedy would become nearly synonymous with the Kennedys when Bobby, too, was assassinated on the campaign trail in 1968. Portrait of President John F. Kennedy by Aaron Shikler, 1970. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Jacqueline Kennedy and her two children moved from the White House to a home in the Georgetown section of Washington. Continuing crowds of the worshipful and curious made peace there impossible, however, and in the summer of 1964 she moved to New York City . Pursuit continued until October 20, 1968, when she married Aristotle Onassis , a wealthy Greek shipping magnate.

The Associated Press said that the marriage “broke the spell of almost complete adulation of a woman who had become virtually a legend in her own time.” Widowed by Onassis, the former first lady returned to the public eye in the mid-1970s as a high-profile book editor, and she remained among the most admired women in the United States until her death in 1994. As an adult, daughter Caroline was jealous of her own privacy, but John Jr.—a lawyer like his sister and debonair and handsome like his father—was much more of a public figure. Long remembered as “John-John,” the three-year-old who stoically saluted his father’s casket during live television coverage of the funeral procession, John Jr. became the founder and editor-in-chief of the political magazine George in the mid-1990s. In 1999, when John Jr., his wife, and his sister-in-law died in the crash of the private plane he was piloting, the event was the focus of an international media watch that further proved the immortality of the Kennedy mystique. It was yet another chapter in the family’s “curse” of tragedy. John F.

Kennedy, Jr., with his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, at the John F. Kennedy Library … David M. Tenenbaum/AP Cabinet of President John F. Kennedy The table provides a list of cabinet members in the administration of President John F. Kennedy. Cabinet of President John F. Kennedy January 20, 1961-November 22, 1963 State John Fitzgerald Kennedy Develop your reading skills. Read the following text and do the comprehension questions John Fitzgerald Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy, born on May 29, 1917, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from January 1961 until he was assassinated in November 1963. At the age of 43, he was the youngest to have been elected to the office, the second-youngest president (after Theodore Roosevelt), the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president. To date, Kennedy has been the only Catholic president and the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.

Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Raceï¿½by initiating Project Apollo (which would culminate in the moon landing), the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of the crime and arrested that evening, but Jack Ruby shot and killed him two days later, before a trial could take place. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. However, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that those investigations were flawed and that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy. Since the 1960s, information concerning Kennedy's private life has come to light. Details of Kennedy's health problems with which he struggled have become better known, especially since the 1990s. Although initially kept secret from the general public, reports of Kennedy being unfaithful in marriage have garnered much press. Kennedy ranks highly in public opinion ratings of U.S. presidents.

John Kennedy served two mandates a. He never served as an army officer. a. The reason behind John Kennedy's murder is still unclear. a. News about his health problems has been known since his death a.

Question: Who became the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961?
Answer: John Fitzgerald Kennedy