On NOVEMBER 22, 1963, when he was
hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald
Kennedy was killed by assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound
through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President;
he was the youngest to die, at age 46.
Of Irish descent, he was born in
Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. He was the second
of nine children, the son of Rose
Fitzgerald and millionaire Joseph P. Kennedy who had served
as ambassador to Great Britain under Franklin Roosevelt. John
attended Caterbury School in New Milford, Conn., then went to
Choate Academy in Wallingford, Conn. where he was voted "most
likely to succeed." He attended Princeton University briefly,
then majored in government and international relations at Harvard.
After a summer tour of Europe in
1939, Kennedy wrote his college thesis on the failure of England
to prepare itself against Nazi Germany. Published in book form
in 1949, under the title, "Why England Slept," the
work became a best seller. He graduated from Harvard in 1940.
Before
Pearl Harbor, Kennedy entered the Navy
as a seaman. He was commissioned an ensign assigned to a
PT boat squadron which patrolled the Soloman Islands. 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. His heroic rescue of survivors of his crew
won him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal as well as the Purple
Heart.
After the war, Kennedy worked as
a reporter for Hearst newspapers for a short time. One of his
assignments was coverage of the United Nations conference at
San Francisco in 1945. He decided to enter politics in 1946,
and with the enthusiastic help of his brothers and sisters won
the Democratic nomination to the House of Representatives in
the eleventh district of Massachusetts. His mother and sisters
organized teas at the homes of voters, while his father furnished
campaign funds. He won the election and as Congressman voted
for Truman's welfare programs, including expanded social security
benefits, aid to veterans, and old-age benefits. In 1952, Kennedy
upset the veteran Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge by winning
his seat in the US Senate.
He
married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, daughter of a wealthy Wall Street
broker, on September 12, 1953. ( They had four children, a girl
who was stillborne; Caroline, born Nov. 27, 1957; John Fitzgerald,
Jr., born Nov. 25, 1960, and Patrick Bouvier, born August, 1963,
died two days later.) Meanwhile, as a Mass. Senator, he worked
for bills that would help New England industries. In 1955, while
recuperating from a back operation, he wrote "Profiles in
Courage," which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.
He and his family began working
tirelessly for his presidential nomination as early as 1956.
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 four television debates with
the Republican candidate and current Vice President, Richard
M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy
became the first Roman Catholic President. (JFK BIO)
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John F. Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president, negotiated the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and initiated the Alliance for Progress. 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. 