1960 proved to be a year of firsts for the United States presidency. John F. Kennedy became the 35th president, while becoming the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office. His presidency is most known for his handling of the mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam, and elsewhere, his renewed drive for public service, federal support for the growing civil rights movement, and his assassination. Even to this day, historians continue to rank him among the best-loved presidents in American history.
John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts as the second of nine children to Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Experiencing health problems throughout his childhood and teenage years, later being diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder called Addison’s disease; Kennedy led a very privileged life, being a member one of Boston’s most prominent Irish Catholic political families. He eventually became a student at Harvard University and later traveled in Europe as his father’s secretary after his father was appointed the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934. Kennedy later joined the U.S. Navy in 1941.
Abandoning plans to be a journalist, Kennedy left the Navy by the end of 1944. Less than a year later, he was back in Boston preparing for a run for Congress in 1946. As a moderately conservative Democrat, and backed by his father’s fortune, Kennedy won his party’s nomination handily and carried the mostly working-class Eleventh District by nearly three to one over his Republican opponent in the general election. He entered the 80th Congress in January 1947, at the age of 29, and immediately attracted attention (as well as some criticism from older members of the Washington establishment) for his youthful appearance and relaxed, informal style.
Kennedy won reelection to the House of Representatives in 1948 and 1950, and in 1952 ran successfully for the Senate, defeating the popular Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. On September 12, 1953, Kennedy married the beautiful socialite and journalist Jacqueline (Jackie) Lee Bouvier. Two years later, he was forced to undergo a painful operation on his back.
Kennedy announced his candidacy for president on January 2, 1960. He defeated a primary challenge from the more liberal Hubert Humphrey and chose the Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas, as his running mate. In the general election, Kennedy faced a difficult battle against his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, a two-term vice president under the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower. Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon and the status quo, Kennedy benefited from his performance in the first-ever televised debates, watched by millions of viewers. In November’s election, Kennedy won by a narrow margin–less than 120,000 out of some 70 million votes cast–becoming the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States.
During his first year in office, Kennedy oversaw the launch of the Peace Corps, which would send young volunteers to underdeveloped countries all over the world. Otherwise, he was unable to achieve much of his proposed legislation during his lifetime, including two of his biggest priorities: income tax cuts and a civil rights bill. Kennedy was slow to commit himself to the civil rights cause, but was eventually forced into action, sending federal troops to support the desegregation of the University of Mississippi after riots there left two dead and many others injured. The following summer, Kennedy announced his intention to propose a comprehensive civil rights bill and endorsed the massive March on Washington that took place that August.
On November 22, 1963, the president and his wife landed in Dallas; he had spoken in San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth the day before. From the airfield, the party then traveled in a motorcade to the Dallas Trade Mart, the site of Kennedy’s next speaking engagement. Shortly after 12:30 p.m., as the motorcade was passing through downtown Dallas, shots rang out; Kennedy was struck twice, in the neck and head, and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital.
Twenty-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, known to have Communist sympathies, was arrested for the killing but was shot and fatally wounded two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being led to jail. Almost immediately, alternative theories of Kennedy’s assassination emerged–including conspiracies run by the KGB, the Mafia and the U.S. military-industrial complex, among others. A presidential commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that Oswald had acted alone, but speculation and debate over the assassination has persisted.
