175 Facts About John Kennedy

John Kennedy was the youngest president at the end of his tenure.

John Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his work as president concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba.

John Kennedy was elected to the US Senate and served as the junior senator for Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960.

John Kennedy's campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history.

John Kennedy's administration included high tensions with communist states in the Cold War.

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John Kennedy rejected Operation Northwoods in March 1962, but his administration continued to plan for an invasion of Cuba in the summer of 1962.

John Kennedy signed the first nuclear weapons treaty in October 1963.

John Kennedy presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps, Alliance for Progress with Latin America, and the continuation of the Apollo program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon before 1970.

John Kennedy supported the civil rights movement but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies.

John Kennedy is the most recent US president to have died in office.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29,1917, at 83 Beals Street, to Joseph P Kennedy Sr.

John Kennedy lived in Brookline for the first ten years of his life.

John Kennedy attended the local St Aidan's Church, where he was baptized on June 19,1917.

John Kennedy was educated through the 4th grade at the Edward Devotion School, the Noble and Greenough Lower School, and the Dexter School; all located in the Boston area.

Young John Kennedy attended the Riverdale Country School – a private school for boys – from 5th to 7th grade, and was a member of Boy Scout Troop 2 in Bronxville, New York.

In September 1931, John Kennedy started attending Choate School, a prestigious preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Defiantly John Kennedy took a cue and named his group "The Muckers Club", which included roommate and lifelong friend Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings.

John Kennedy had been the business manager of the school yearbook and was voted the "most likely to succeed".

In September 1935, John Kennedy made his first trip abroad when he traveled to London with his parents and his sister Kathleen.

John Kennedy intended to study under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics, as his older brother had done.

John Kennedy was then hospitalized for observation at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.

John Kennedy convalesced further at the family winter home in Palm Beach, then spent the spring of 1936 working as a ranch hand on the 40,000-acre Jay Six cattle ranch outside Benson, Arizona.

John Kennedy tried out for the football, golf, and swimming teams and earned a spot on the varsity swimming team.

John Kennedy sailed in the Star class and won the 1936 Nantucket Sound Star Championship.

In July 1937, John Kennedy sailed to France—taking his convertible—and spent ten weeks driving through Europe with Billings.

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In June 1938, Kennedy sailed overseas with his father and older brother to work at the American embassy in London, where his father was President Franklin D Roosevelt's US Ambassador to the Court of St James's.

In 1939, John Kennedy toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis.

John Kennedy then went to Berlin, where the US diplomatic representative gave him a secret message about war breaking out soon to pass on to his father, and to Czechoslovakia before returning to London on September 1,1939, the day that Germany invaded Poland to mark the beginning of World War II.

In 1940 John Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich", about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement.

John Kennedy became increasingly supportive of US intervention in World War II, and his father's isolationist beliefs resulted in the latter's dismissal as ambassador to the United Kingdom.

In early 1941, John Kennedy left and helped his father write a memoir of his time as an American ambassador.

John Kennedy then traveled throughout South America; his itinerary included Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

John Kennedy planned to attend Yale Law School after auditing courses on business law at Stanford, but canceled when American entry into World War II seemed imminent.

In 1940, John Kennedy attempted to enter the army's Officer Candidate School.

John Kennedy was commissioned an ensign on October 26,1941, and joined the staff of the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, DC.

In January 1942, John Kennedy was assigned to the ONI field office at Headquarters, Sixth Naval District, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Ambling around the plots near the tiny St Columba's chapel, John Kennedy paused over Koehler's white granite cross grave marker and pondered his own mortality, hoping out loud that when his time came, he would not have to die without religion.

John Kennedy's first command was PT-101 from December 7,1942, until February 23,1943: It was a patrol torpedo boat used for training while Kennedy was an instructor at Melville.

John Kennedy then led three Huckins PT boats—PT-98, PT-99, and PT-101, which were being relocated from MTBRON 4 in Melville, Rhode Island, back to Jacksonville, Florida, and the new MTBRON 14.

Thereafter, John Kennedy was assigned duty in Panama and later in the Pacific theater, where he eventually commanded two more PT boats.

John Kennedy gathered around the wreckage his surviving ten crew members to vote on whether to "fight or surrender".

John Kennedy made an additional two-mile swim the night of August 2,1943, to Ferguson Passage to attempt to hail a passing American PT boat to expedite his crew's rescue and attempted to make the trip on a subsequent night, in a damaged canoe found on Naru Island where he had swum with Ensign George Ross to look for food.

Lieutenant "Bud" Liebenow, a friend and former tentmate of John Kennedy's, rescued John Kennedy and his crew on Olasana Island on August 8,1943, aboard his boat, PT-157.

John Kennedy was hospitalized at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts from May to December 1944.

John Kennedy's father requested that his son receive the Silver Star, which is awarded for gallantry in action.

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On March 1,1945, John Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant.

Unmindful of personal danger, Lieutenant John Kennedy unhesitatingly braved the difficulties and hazards of darkness to direct rescue operations, swimming many hours to secure aid and food after he had succeeded in getting his crew ashore.

John Kennedy established his residency at an apartment building on 122 Bowdoin Street across from the Massachusetts State House.

John Kennedy served in the House for six years, joining the influential Education and Labor Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

John Kennedy concentrated his attention on international affairs, supporting the Truman Doctrine as the appropriate response to the emerging Cold War.

John Kennedy supported public housing and opposed the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, which restricted the power of labor unions.

Almost every weekend that Congress was in session, John Kennedy would fly back to Massachusetts to give speeches to veteran, fraternal, and civic groups, while maintaining an index card file on individuals who might be helpful for a future campaign for state-wide office.

John Kennedy underwent several spinal operations over the next two years.

At the start of his first term, John Kennedy focused on Massachusetts-specific issues by sponsoring bills to help the fishing, textile manufacturing, and watchmaking industries.

In 1954, Senator John Kennedy voted in favor of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which would connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, despite opposition from Massachusetts politicians who argued that the project would cripple New England's shipping industry, including the Port of Boston.

Three years later, John Kennedy chaired a special committee to select the five greatest US senators in history so their portraits could decorate the Senate Reception Room.

That same year, John Kennedy joined the Senate Labor Rackets Committee with his brother Robert to investigate crime infiltration of labor unions.

At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, John Kennedy gave the nominating speech for the party's presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II.

John Kennedy finished second in the balloting, losing to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee but receiving national exposure as a result.

John Kennedy cast a procedural vote against it and this was considered by some to be an appeasement of Southern Democratic opponents of the bill.

John Kennedy voted for Title IV, termed the "Jury Trial Amendment".

John Kennedy proposed on July 2,1957, that the US support Algeria's effort to gain independence from France.

The following year, John Kennedy authored A Nation of Immigrants, which analyzed the importance of immigration in the country's history as well as proposals to re-evaluate immigration law.

In 1958, Kennedy was re-elected to a second term in the Senate, defeating Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent J Celeste, by a margin of 874,608 votes, the largest margin in the history of Massachusetts politics.

On September 3,1959, John Kennedy cosponsored the Cape Cod National Seashore bill with his Republican colleague Senator Leverett Saltonstall.

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John Kennedy's father was a strong supporter and friend of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Additionally, Bobby John Kennedy worked for McCarthy's subcommittee, and McCarthy dated John Kennedy's sister Patricia.

On January 2,1960, John Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

John Kennedy's religion helped him win a devoted following among many Catholic voters.

John Kennedy's presidential campaign was a family affair, funded by his father and with his younger brother Robert, acting as his campaign manager.

John Kennedy preferred Ivy League policy advisors, but unlike his father, he enjoyed the give and take of Massachusetts politics and built a largely Irish team of campaigners, headed by Larry O'Brien and Kenneth O'Donnell.

John Kennedy traveled extensively to build his support among Democratic elites and voters.

At the time, party officials controlled most of the delegates, but several states held primaries, and John Kennedy sought to win several primaries to boost his chances of winning the nomination.

John Kennedy won the West Virginia primary, impressing many in the party, but at the start of the 1960 Democratic National Convention, it was unclear as to whether he would win the nomination.

When John Kennedy entered the convention, he had the most delegates, but not enough to ensure that he would win the nomination.

John Kennedy believed that the Texas Senator could help him win support from the South.

Conversely, John Kennedy wore makeup and appeared relaxed, which helped the large television audience to view him as the winner.

John Kennedy's campaign gained momentum after the first debate, and he pulled slightly ahead of Nixon in most polls.

On Election Day, John Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century.

John Kennedy became the youngest person ever elected to the presidency, though Theodore Roosevelt was a year younger at 42 when he automatically assumed the office after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901.

John F Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president at noon on January 20,1961.

John Kennedy brought to the White House a contrast in organization compared to the decision-making structure of former General Eisenhower, and he wasted no time in scrapping Eisenhower's methods.

John Kennedy preferred the organizational structure of a wheel with all the spokes leading to the president.

John Kennedy was ready and willing to make the increased number of quick decisions required in such an environment.

John Kennedy selected a mixture of experienced and inexperienced people to serve in his cabinet.

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John Kennedy focused on immediate and specific issues facing the administration and quickly voiced his impatience with pondering deeper meanings.

John Kennedy approved Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's controversial decision to award the contract for the F-111 TFX fighter-bomber to General Dynamics over Boeing.

At the request of Senator Henry Jackson, Senator John Kennedy McClellan held 46 days of mostly closed-door hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations investigating the TFX contract from February to November 1963.

John Kennedy started off on the wrong foot by reacting aggressively to a routine Khrushchev speech on Cold War confrontation in early 1961.

John Kennedy's mistake helped raise tensions going into the Vienna summit of June 1961.

John Kennedy picked up on this in his speech in Paris, saying that he would be remembered as "the man who accompanied Jackie John Kennedy to Paris".

On June 4,1961, John Kennedy met with Khrushchev in Vienna and left the meetings angry and disappointed that he had allowed the premier to bully him, despite the warnings he had received.

John Kennedy did succeed in conveying the bottom line to Khrushchev on the most sensitive issue before them, a proposed treaty between Moscow and East Berlin.

John Kennedy made it clear that any treaty interfering with US access rights in West Berlin would be regarded as an act of war.

Shortly after Kennedy returned home, the US S R announced its plan to sign a treaty with East Berlin, abrogating any third-party occupation rights in either sector of the city.

Depressed and angry, John Kennedy assumed that his only option was to prepare the country for nuclear war, which he personally thought had a one-in-five chance of occurring.

John Kennedy gave a speech at Saint Anselm College on May 5,1960, regarding America's conduct in the emerging Cold War.

Biographer Richard Reeves said that John Kennedy focused primarily on the political repercussions of the plan rather than military considerations.

In late-1961, the White House formed the Special Group, headed by Robert John Kennedy and including Edward Lansdale, Secretary Robert McNamara, and others.

In March 1962, John Kennedy rejected Operation Northwoods, proposals for false flag attacks against American military and civilian targets, and blaming them on the Cuban government in order to gain approval for a war against Cuba.

John Kennedy exchanged two sets of letters with Khrushchev, to no avail.

John Kennedy worked closely with Puerto Rican Governor Luis Munoz Marin for the development of the Alliance of Progress and began working to further Puerto Rico's autonomy.

When John Kennedy took office, he privately instructed the CIA that any plan must include plausible deniability by the US His public position was in opposition.

Robert John Kennedy, who saw an opportunity for the US, called Bowles "a gutless bastard" to his face.

When briefing John Kennedy, Eisenhower emphasized that the communist threat in Southeast Asia required priority; Eisenhower considered Laos to be "the cork in the bottle" regarding the regional threat.

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In March 1961, John Kennedy voiced a change in policy from supporting a "free" Laos to a "neutral" Laos, indicating privately that Vietnam, and not Laos, should be deemed America's tripwire for communism's spread in the area.

John Kennedy announced a change of policy from support to partnership with Diem to defeat of communism in South Vietnam.

John Kennedy increased the number of military advisers and special forces in the area, from 11,000 in 1962 to 16,000 by late 1963, but he was reluctant to order a full-scale deployment of troops.

In late 1961, John Kennedy sent Roger Hilsman, then director of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, to assess the situation in Vietnam.

In October 1963, Kennedy appointed Defense Secretary McNamara and General Maxwell D Taylor to a Vietnamese mission in another effort to synchronize the information and formulation of policy.

John Kennedy instructed Lodge to offer covert assistance to the coup, excluding assassination.

Historians disagree on whether the Vietnam War would have escalated if John Kennedy had not been assassinated and had won re-election in 1964.

The film contains a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson stating that Kennedy was planning to withdraw, a position in which Johnson disagreed.

John Kennedy had signed National Security Action Memorandum 263, dated October 11, which ordered the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by year's end, and the bulk of them out by 1965.

Such an action would have been a policy reversal, but John Kennedy was publicly moving in a less hawkish direction since his speech on world peace at American University on June 10,1963.

John Kennedy reiterated the American commitment to Germany and criticized communism, and was met with an ecstatic response from a massive audience.

John Kennedy ended the arms embargo that the Eisenhower and Truman administrations had enforced on Israel.

John Kennedy extended the first informal security guarantees to Israel in 1962 and, beginning in 1963, was the first US president to allow the sale to Israel of advanced US weaponry as well as to provide diplomatic support for Israeli policies, which were opposed by Arab neighbors; those policies included Israel's water project on the Jordan River.

In 1963 the John Kennedy administration was engaged in a now-declassified diplomatic standoff with the leaders of Israel.

Meanwhile, John Kennedy instructed the CIA—under the direction of Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr.

The John Kennedy administration was pleased with the outcome and ultimately approved a $55-million arms deal for Iraq.

John Kennedy visited the cottage at Dunganstown, near New Ross, County Wexford, where his ancestors had lived before emigrating to America.

John Kennedy was the first foreign leader to address the Houses of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament.

John Kennedy later told aides that the trip was the best four days of his life.

In July 1963, Kennedy sent W Averell Harriman to Moscow to negotiate a treaty with the Soviets.

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John Kennedy promised an end to racial discrimination, although his agenda, which included the endorsement of the Voter Education Project in 1962, produced little progress in areas such as Mississippi, where the "VEP concluded that discrimination was so entrenched".

John Kennedy ended a period of tight fiscal policies, loosening monetary policy to keep interest rates down and to encourage growth of the economy.

The economy, which had been through two recessions in three years and was in one when John Kennedy took office, accelerated notably throughout his administration.

Attorney General Robert John Kennedy took the position that steel executives had illegally colluded to fix prices.

John Kennedy commuted a death sentence imposed by a military court on seaman Jimmie Henderson on February 12,1962, changing the penalty to life in prison.

On March 22,1962, John Kennedy signed into law HR5143, which abolished the mandatory death penalty for first degree murder suspects in the District of Columbia, the only remaining jurisdiction in the United States with such a penalty.

John Kennedy verbally supported racial integration and civil rights; during his 1960 presidential campaign, he telephoned Coretta Scott King, wife of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Robert John Kennedy called Georgia governor Ernest Vandiver and obtained King's release from prison, which drew additional black support to his brother's candidacy.

John Kennedy assigned federal marshals to protect the Freedom Riders rather than using federal troops or uncooperative FBI agents.

Robert John Kennedy, speaking for the president, urged the Freedom Riders to "get off the buses and leave the matter to peaceful settlement in the courts".

John Kennedy feared sending federal troops would stir up "hated memories of Reconstruction" after the Civil War among conservative Southern whites.

On March 6,1961, John Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925, which 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".

John Kennedy began doubting as to whether the "evils of Reconstruction" of the 1860s and 1870s he had been taught or believed in were true.

On November 20,1962, John Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, which prohibited racial discrimination in federally supported housing or "related facilities".

On June 11,1963, President John Kennedy intervened when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to the University of Alabama to stop two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending.

That evening John Kennedy gave his famous Report to the American People on Civil Rights on national television and radio, launching his initiative for civil rights legislation—to provide equal access to public schools and other facilities, and greater protection of voting rights.

John Kennedy's proposals became part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

John Kennedy turned over some of the details of the government's involvement to the Dept.

John Kennedy called the congressional leaders to the White House and by the following day the original bill, without the additions, had enough votes to get it out of the House committee.

John Kennedy saw this proposal as an extension of his planned civil rights agenda as president.

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John Kennedy was asked by the American Civil Liberties Union to intervene and to halt the project, but he declined, citing a critical need for flood control.

John Kennedy expressed concern about the plight of the Seneca and directed government agencies to assist in obtaining more land, damages, and assistance to help mitigate their displacement.

In constructing his presidential administration, John Kennedy elected to retain Eisenhower's last science advisor Jerome Wiesner as head of the President's Science Advisory Committee.

Early in his presidency, Kennedy was poised to dismantle the manned space program but postponed any decision out of deference to Johnson, who had been a strong supporter of the space program in the Senate.

John Kennedy now became eager for the US to take the lead in the Space Race, for reasons of national security and prestige.

John Kennedy's memo concluded that a manned Moon landing was far enough in the future that it was likely the United States would achieve it first.

John Kennedy took the latter occasion as an opportunity to deliver another speech at Rice to promote the space effort on September 12,1962, in which he said:.

On November 21,1962, in a cabinet meeting with NASA administrator Webb and other officials, John Kennedy explained that the Moon shot was important for reasons of international prestige, and that the expense was justified.

John Kennedy appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:.

John Kennedy was in Texas on a political trip to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough and Don Yarborough and conservative John Connally.

John Kennedy was 46 years old and had been in office for 1,036 days.

Body of President John Kennedy was brought back to Washington soon after his death and was placed in the East Room of the White House for 24 hours.

John Kennedy family is one of the most established political families in the United States, having produced a president, three senators, three ambassadors, and multiple other representatives and politicians, both at the federal and state level.

John Kennedy was a life member of the National Rifle Association.

John Kennedy met his future wife, Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Bouvier, when he was a congressman.

Mrs John Kennedy brought new art and furniture to the White House and directed its restoration.

John Kennedy was closely tied to popular culture, emphasized by songs such as "Twisting at the White House".

Three months prior to his third birthday, in 1920, John Kennedy came down with scarlet fever, a highly contagious and life-threatening disease, and was admitted to Boston City Hospital.

John Kennedy suffered from chronic and severe back pain, for which he had surgery.

Into late 1961, disagreements existed among John Kennedy's doctors concerning his proper balance of medication and exercise.

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John Kennedy preferred the former because he was short on time and desired immediate relief.

John Kennedy's sister Rose Marie "Rosemary" Kennedy was born in 1918 with intellectual disabilities and underwent a prefrontal lobotomy at age 23, leaving her incapacitated until her death in 2005.

John Kennedy was single in the 1940s while having relationships with Danish journalist Inga Arvad and actress Gene Tierney.

John Kennedy was reported to have had affairs with women such as Marilyn Monroe, Judith Campbell, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Marlene Dietrich, Mimi Alford, and his wife's press secretary, Pamela Turnure.

Bobby John Kennedy reportedly took the matter sufficiently seriously to raise it with leading Democratic and Republican figures in Congress.

John Kennedy inspired affection and loyalty from the members of his team and his supporters.

John Kennedy was the first of six presidents to have served in the US Navy, and one of the enduring legacies of his administration was the creation in 1961 of another special forces command, the Navy SEALs, which John Kennedy enthusiastically supported.

Many of John Kennedy's speeches are considered iconic; and despite his relatively short term in office, and the lack of major legislative changes coming to fruition during his term, he is considered by many Americans to be in the upper echelon of presidents.

John Kennedy was posthumously awarded the Pacem in Terris Award.

John Kennedy posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963.