"Mankind must put an end to war, before war puts an end to man kind."
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)
American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961.
He was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
His presidency was at the height of the Cold War.
He dealt with with managing relations with the Soviet Union.
May 29, 1917
He was born Brookline, Massachusetts.
He was one of nine children born into an extremely wealthy family.
His father, Joseph Kennedy, was a leading political figure from
Boston.
His mother was a philanthropist.
His dad became the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
His grandparents were Irish immigrants.
John F Kennedy had one leg longer than the other and wore corrective shoes.
Due to this, he suffered from chronic back pain and occasionally, but privately, used crutches.
The swimming pool at the White House was constantly heated to 90 degrees and he would swim regularly to ease the pain.
The average reader can digest words at a rate of about 250 to 300 words per minute, JFK could reportedly read about four times faster than that, at a speed of 1200 words per minute.
April 1931
He had an appendectomy.
September 1931
He attended a Choate.
It was a boarding school in Connecticut.
He exploded a toilet seat with a powerful firecracker.
1934
Kennedy was beset by health problems that culminated with his emergency hospitalization.
At the time they thought he might have leukemia.
June, 1934
He was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota; the ultimate diagnosis there was colitis.
1935
Attended Princeton University but had to leave after two months due to a gastrointestinal illness.
He enrolled at Harvard College..
His application essay stated: "The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a 'Harvard man' is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain."
1937
JOHN F. KENNEDY RECORDING FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING CLASS AT HARVARD,
Kennedy sailed overseas with his father and older brother to work at the American embassy in London.
In preparation for his Harvard honors thesis. Kennedy toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East.
He then went to Czechoslovakia and Germany.
Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with arrangements for American survivors of the SS Athenia.
Graduated cum lade from Harvard with Bachelor of Arts in government and a degree in international affairs.
He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve.
Kennedy had various medical conditions and could not pass a proper physical examination.
Kennedy's dad persuaded friends in the military to accept a certificate of good health, a false one, from a family doctor.
He was made commander of a PT-109 patrol boat that came under attack near the Solomon Islands.
The boat was rammed and caught fire.
Some of his shipmates were thrown overboard into the sea of burning oil.
Kennedy jumped in and to save 3 crew members.
For 12 hours, Kennedy and his crew clung to the wrecked hull, before he ordered them to abandon ship.
After the boat sank, Kennedy and the other good swimmers placed the injured on a makeshift raft and swam approximately 3.5 miles to a nearby island.
Kennedy etched an SOS message into a coconut shell.
He gave to two natives to deliver to a nearby base in order to arrange for their rescue.
They were stranded for seven days until a pair of PT boats came to their rescue.
He earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his service.
He also received a the Purple Heart.
He retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability.
He was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant.
September 12, 1953
John F Kennedy married newspaper photographer Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, in Newport, Rhode Island.
Together they had 4 children but only two survived infancy.
1947-1953
Kennedy represented the 11th congressional district of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He joined the Education and Labor Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
He supported the Truman Document, public housing and opposed the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947.
He supported the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
1953-1960
He was elected to the U.S. Senate and served as the junior Senator from Massachusetts.
1955
He was given a copy of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond book, Casino Royale.
He became a James Bond Fan.
1957
He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his book called 'Profiles in Courage'.
It was compilation of short tales of bravery and integrity also formed the basis of a TV series of the same name, which was first broadcast during 1964 - 1965.
1960 Presidential Election
Kennedy narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon.
Kennedy said:
"Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom."
January 20 1961
John F Kennedy became the 35th President of America at age 43.
In his inauguration speech he said.
"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
He 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."
He also added:
"All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you."
He was the youngest man elected as president.
Was the first boy scout to be president.
He was the first and only Roman Catholic to occupy that office.
He was the last president to wear a top hat to his inauguration.
He began the tradition of having an inaugural poet.
He was the second wealthiest president.
He did not take any salary as president.
He donated to charities including the boy scouts and the United Negro College Fund.
While JFK was in office, the White House was home to five horses, two parakeets, two hamsters, a cat, a rabbit, and five dogs, including a mutt named Pushinka, a gift from Nikita Khrushchev.
Pushinka was the daughter of Strelka, one of the first dogs in space.
He did not see eye to eye with previous president, Dwight D Eisenhower.
Eisenhower called Kennedy "Little Boy Blue."
January 30, 1961
Kennedy gives his first State of the Union Address.
In it he states:
"The denial of constitutional rights to some of our fellow Americans on account of race – at the ballot box and elsewhere – disturbs the national conscience, and subjects us to the charge of world opinion that our democracy is not equal to the high promise of our heritage."
Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925.
It required government contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin."
It established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.
April 16, 1961
The 'Bay of Pigs' incident took place and was unsuccessful.
It was an attempt by CIA-trained Cuban exiles who invaded southern Cuba to overthrow the government.
May 25, 1961
He proposed a plan to congress to get a man on the moon before the end of the year.
In his speech titled "Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs", he said:
".. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish"
July, 1961
Kennedy gave a speech announcing his decision to add $3.25 billion to the defense budget, along with over 200,000 additional troops, stating that an attack on West Berlin would be taken as an attack on the U.S.
John F Kennedy played a key role in the creation of the Peace Corps.
The Peace Corps promotes peace and international friendship.
Over 210,000 Americans have joined.
He was also a big supporter of the civil rights movement.
Kennedy's proposals became part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
September 12. 1962
NASA built two new centers: a Launch Operations Center for the large Moon rocket northwest of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and a Manned Spacecraft Center on land donated through Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Kennedy took the occasion as an opportunity to deliver another speech at Rice to promote the space effort.
In the speech he said:
"No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space. ... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
The Ole Miss Riot.
James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi but was prevented from entering.
James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi but was prevented from entering.
Robert Kennedy send 400 federal marshals and
President Kennedy reluctantly sent 3,000 troops after the situation on campus turned out violent.
The riot left two people dead and a dozen others injured, but Meredith did finally enroll for class.
October, 1962
A thirteen day worldwide crisis took place, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
JFK stopped the Russians from entering Cuba with nuclear missiles that could then be deployed to the US Naval quarantine surrounded Cuba.
JFK diverted the world from the brink of nuclear war.
He rejected Operation Northwoods plans by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to orchestrate false flag attacks on American soil in order to gain public approval for a war against Cuba.
Secret Service agent Robert Bouck installed secret recording devices in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room of the White House at the request of President Kennedy.
More than 260 hours of private conversations were recorded.
He hosted a private screening of Dr. No at the White House.
November 20, 1962
Kennedy signed Executive Order 1106.
It prohibited racial discrimination in federally supported housing or "related facilities".
He delivered the commencement address(the Strategy of Peace) at American University in Washington, D.C.
He outlined a plan to curb nuclear arms, but he also "laid out a hopeful, yet realistic route for world peace at a time when the U.S. and Soviet Union faced the potential for an escalating nuclear arms race."
Kennedy said:
"To discuss a topic on which too often ignorance abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived—yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace ... I speak of peace because of the new face of war...in an age when a singular nuclear weapon contains ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied forces in the Second World War ... an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and air and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn ... I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men ... world peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor—it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance ... our problems are man-made—therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants."
He maid two announcements.
#1 That the Soviets had expressed a desire to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty.
#2 That the U.S had postponed planned atmospheric tests.
He also signed the the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
June 26, 1963
He gave a public speech in West Berlin, reiterating the American commitment to Germany and criticized communism.
He stated :
"Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect. But we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us." The speech is known for its famous phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin"). A million people were on the street for the speech"
June 1963
He was the first foreign leader to address the Houses of the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament).
He was subject to three death threats while in Ireland.
September 1963
In his speech before the United Nations, Kennedy urged cooperation between the Soviets and Americans in space.
He recommended that Apollo be switched to "a joint expedition to the Moon".
However, the Soviets did not commit to a manned Moon mission until 1964.
October 1963
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibited atomic testing on the ground, in the atmosphere, or underwater, but not underground.
Ratified by the U.S. Senate and signed it into law by Kennedy.
October 11, 1963
Kennedy had signed National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263.
Which ordered the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by year's end from Vietnam.
And the bulk of them out by 1965.
Friday November 22, 1963
While travelling in an open top car through downtown Dallas, Texas. Aged 46 years, he became the 4th president to be assassinated, and the youngest president to die in office.
He was shot once in the back, the bullet exiting via his throat, and once in the head.
Kennedy was taken to Parkland Hospital for emergency medical treatment.
He was pronounced dead 20 minutes later.
He had been in office for 1,036 days.
That is where Lee Harvey Oswald was a order filer.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with Kennedy's assassination.
He denied that he fired any shots.
He claimed he was a patsy.
November 26, 1963
A Requiem Mass was celebrated for Kennedy at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.
It was officiated by Father John J. Cavanaugh.
Afterward, Kennedy was interred in a small plot, (20 by 30 ft.), in Arlington National Cemetery.
Over a period of three years, an estimated 16 million people visited his grave.
The honor guard at Kennedy's graveside was the 37th Cadet Class of the Irish Army.
Were disinterred and moved only a few feet away to a permanent burial plot and memorial.
John F. Kennedy's grave is lit with an "Eternal Flame".
1979
The U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that it believed "that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.
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