John F Kennedy:
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on 29th May 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy’s father was a highly successful businessman who later served as ambassador to Great Britain.
Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940. In 1941, he joined the United States Navy and become an intelligence officer. In August 1943, his boat was hit by a Japanese destroyer. He suffered back injury. After recovery he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In March 1945, he returned to civilian life. He worked as a journalist covering UN conference in San Francisco and Generation election in Britain in 1945.
He entered politics in 1946 and won election as a democrat to the US House of Representatives. In 1952, he was elected to the senate.
He married Jacqueline Bouvier on Sept 12, 1953. Kennedy continued to suffer from back problems and had two operations in Oct. 1954 and Feb. 1955. While recovering in hospital he wrote ‘Profiles in Courage’ which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.
In 1960, Kennedy entered the race to become the Democratic Party presidential candidate. At the age of 43, he was country’s second youngest president as well as its first Roman Catholic head of state. At the inaugural address on 20th Jan., 1961, Kennedy challenged the people of the US with the statement “Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country”. Kennedy’s years in power were marked by cold war tensions in foreign affairs. His attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba was a failure.
On 22nd Nov., 1963 in Dallas, Texas Kennedy was assassinated. Within hours of the killing, a suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. On 24th Nov, while being shifted by the police from the city to the County jail, Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby.