 |
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
b. 29 May 1917, Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts
d. 22 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas |
| Title: |
President of the United States |
| Term: |
20 Jan 1961 - 22 Nov 1963 |
| Chronology: |
6 Jan 1961,
election to the office of President of the United States is declared upon counting electoral votes (cast
19 Dec 1960),
joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, House Chamber, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. [1] |
|
20 Jan 1961,
commencement of term |
|
20 Jan 1961,
took an oath of office as President of the United States, inaugural ceremony, East Portico, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. [2] |
|
22 Nov 1963, died (assassination) |
| Biography: |
| Attended the public and private schools of Brookline, Massachusetts, Choate School, Wallingford, Connecticut, the London School of Economics at London, UK, and Princeton University; graduated from Harvard University in 1940; attended Stanford University School of Business; during the Second World War served as a lieutenant in the US Navy 1941-1945; patrol torpedo boat commander in the South Pacific; author and newspaper correspondent; elected as a Democrat to the 80th, 81st, and 82nd Congresses (3 Jan 1947 - 3 Jan 1953); did not seek renomination in 1952; elected to the US Senate in 1952; reelected in 1958 and served 3 Jan 1953 - 22 Dec 1960; chairman, Special Committee on the Senate Reception Room (84th and 85th Congresses); unsuccessfully sought the Democratic vice presidential nomination in 1956; elected President of the United States in 1960, narrowly defeating the Republican candidate, Vice President Richard Nixon, by a margin of 118,550 votes; became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the presidency of the United States; authorized a plan for a covert invasion of Cuba to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro; invasion was repulsed at the Bay of Pigs (17 Apr 1961), embarrassing the administration; deterioration of relations with the Soviet Union culminated in the Cuban missile crisis (1962); used federal troops to assure the admission of Afro-Americans at the universities of Mississippi and Alabama (1962, 1963); fell victim to assassination attempt in Dallas, Texas (12:30 p.m. 22 Nov 1963); the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1979 that Kennedy's death was the result of a probable conspiracy. |
| Biographical sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (2005); The New York Times, New York, Saturday, November 23, 1963, vol. CXIII, No. 38,654, p. 1 (obituary). |
| Elections: |
| Candidate |
Electoral vote (19 Dec 1960) |
| John Fitzgerald Kennedy |
303 |
| Richard Milhous Nixon |
219 |
| Harry Floyd Byrd |
15 |
| total number of electors appointed |
537 |
| number of votes for a majority |
269 |
|
| Source of electoral results: Congressional Record, 87th Congress, 1st Session, 291. |
| |
| [1] |
Congressional Record, 87th Congress, 1st Session, 288-291. |
| [2] |
Congressional Record, 87th Congress, 1st Session, 1010-1013. |
|
Image: photograph (1961) |
