John F. Kennedy
May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963
John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president, at 43, and the first Catholic president. During World War II he commanded PT boats in the Pacific, and after the war he represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 and in the Senate before his presidency.
Biography
John F. Kennedy was born in 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, into a wealthy Irish-American political family. He commanded a patrol boat in the Pacific during the Second World War, then served in the House and the Senate for Massachusetts.
In 1960 he defeated Richard Nixon and became, at 43, the youngest person elected president and the first Catholic. His term began with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. In October 1962 he forced the Soviet Union to withdraw its missiles from Cuba in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and in 1963 he signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty.
He launched the Apollo programme to land a man on the Moon, founded the Peace Corps, increased American advisers in South Vietnam and proposed civil rights legislation. He was assassinated in Dallas on 22 November 1963.
Offices held
Dwight D. Eisenhower Succeeded by
Lyndon B. Johnson
Military service
- Jan 1, 1941 – Jan 1, 1945 United States Navy
