“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy
1. John F Kennedy was elected the 35th president of the United States in 1961, becoming one of the youngest people to hold the post at 43 and one of the wealthiest having born into one of America’s wealthiest families. While in office, Kennedy donated all of his legislative salaries to charity.
2. While a student at Harvard, Kennedy’s father Joseph Patrick “Joe” Kennedy was appointed the United States’ ambassador to the UK, which helped him travel across Europe as his father’s assistant and eventually write his senior thesis which was published later as the bestseller “Why England Slept”.
3. Kennedy wanted to serve the US army during World War II but failed to qualify the physical tests for both the Army and Navy owing to his health condition. However he finally enlisted in the Navy as commanding officer of PT-109 and became a war hero after having saved his crew from a Japanese attack in the Solomon Islands.
4. Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957 for his bestselling book “Profiles in Courage” which he wrote while recovering from a painful back surgery.
5. Kennedy ran for president against opponent Richard Nixon who had served as vice president under the very popular Dwight D Eisenhower’s tenure, and the election saw the first ever televised presidential debates , eventually winning by a very narrow margin of less than 120,000 votes.
6. Kennedy’s most famous accomplishment during his presidency was the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the most threatening events post World War 2 and he eased the cold war tensions through dialogue and diplomacy with his Russian counterpart.
7. Kennedy was one of the most popular presidents of the United States, and it all came to an abrupt end when he was assassinated at the age of 46 on November 22, 1963 in Dallas TX.
