John F. Kennedy(1917-1963)
- Writer
- Actor
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline,
Massachusetts, to Rose Kennedy (née
Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald) and
Joseph P. Kennedy. John was named
after his maternal grandfather, John "HoneyFitz" Fitzgerald, the mayor
of Boston. John was very ill as a child and was given the last rites
five times, the first one being when he was a new-born. He was the
second of four boys born to an Irish Catholic family with nine
children: Joseph Jr., John,
Robert F. Kennedy (called Bobby), and
Ted Kennedy (born Edward). Because
Rose made Joe and Jack (the name his family called him) wear matching
clothes, they fought a lot for attention. When John was young, the
family moved from Boston to New York. John went to Choate, a private
school. Most of the time, though, he was too sick to attend. In the
late 1930s, father Joe became the ambassador to England. He took sons
John and Robert with him, as well as his wife and daughters Kathleen
and Rosemary Kennedy. John went
to Princeton, then Harvard, and for his senior thesis, he wrote a piece
about why England refused to get into the war until late. It was
published in 1940 and called "Why England Slept". His older brother Joe
was a pilot during the war, and was killed when the bombs his plane was
carrying exploded. Not long after that, John's sister Kathleen and her
husband died in a plane crash. In the early 1950s, John ran for
Congress in Massachusetts and won. He married
Jacqueline Kennedy (née Jacqueline Lee Bouvier) on September 12, 1953.
Their daughter,
Caroline Kennedy, was born on
November 27, 1957 and their son,
John Kennedy Jr., was born on November
25, 1960. They also had a stillborn daughter named Arabella and a son named Patrick
Bouvier, who died a few days after birth. In 1954, J.F.K. had to
have back surgery and in the hospital wrote his second book, "Profiles
in Courage". His father always said that his son Joe was going to be
President of the U.S.; when he died in World War II, though, that task
was passed on to John. He ran for president in 1960 against
Richard Nixon and narrowly won. His administration
had many conflicts, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis being
key examples. In November 1963, he and Jackie (his wife's nickname)
went on a trip to Texas. Everywhere they went there were signs saying
"Jack and Jackie." On November 22, 1963, John was to give a speech in
Dallas, but on his way an assassin hidden on the sixth floor of the
Texas School Book Depository opened fire at Kennedy, who was riding in
an open car. Hit twice and severely wounded, Kennedy died in a local
hospital at 1:00 P.M. The alleged assassin,
Lee Harvey Oswald, was captured a
short time later after shooting and killing a Dallas policeman, and was
himself assassinated before he could be thoroughly interrogated, let
alone tried. In just a little bit of irony, considering the death of
Abraham Lincoln a century
earlier, Kennedy was shot in a Ford Lincoln (Lincoln was in Ford's
Theater when he was shot). He was laid to rest on his son's third
birthday.
Celebrities at Christmastime
Celebrities at Christmastime
See some of our favorite photos of celebrities getting into the spirit of the season.