John Fitzgerald Kennedy

General information

John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917. He was the youngest man ever elected president – and the youngest president ever to die in office. He was killed on November 22, 1963 – after hardy thousand days in office – by an assassin in Dallas, Texas.

Education and military service

He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald. He attended Harvard University, where he graduated 1940. In September 1941, John f. Kennedy volunteered for the US Navy and became a lieutenant, commanding a patrol torpedo boat or PT boat.
In August 1943, Kennedy’s boat, the PT-109, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. He was thrown across the deck and injured his back, but managed to tow a wounded man three miles through the ocean to an island where they were rescued. For these actions, Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.

Early political career and Presidential election

Back from the war, Kennedy entered politics and became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area. In 1952, he ran for the Senate.
He married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage. The book was awarded the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
In 1956, he campaigned for the Vice Presidential nomination, but Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver was selected instead. Four years later, Kennedy declared his intent to run for president of the United States. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, he became the first Roman Catholic President.
He was sworn in as the 35th President on January 20, 1961.

Image, social life and family

Both, Kennedy and his wife „Jackie“, were very young compared to earlier presidents and first ladies, and were both extraordinarily popular in ways more common to pop singers and movie stars than to politicians, influencing fashion trends and becoming the subjects of numerous photo spreads in popular magazines.
Behind the glamorous facade, the Kennedy’s also suffered many personal tragedies, most notably the death of their new-born son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy in August 1963.

Assasination and aftermath

President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, while on a political trip through Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald, apprehended for the assassination, was himself fatally shot by Jack Ruby, a Dallas night-club owner before he could be formally charged or brought to trial. Four days after Kennedy and Oswald were killed, President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Warren Commission, chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination.