John Fitzgerald Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, John F Kennedy, also called Jack and JFK, was elected the 35th President of the United States and served from January 1961 till his assassination in November 1963. He took America out of recession and carried out a number of necessary reforms within the home front. Internationally, he was concerned on a number of main occasions most famously the Cuban Missile Crisis which threatened nuclear conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
John F. Kennedy facts
Know why John F. Kennedy stays well-known and why he’s ranked extremely as a president by historians, by finding out his 10 main accomplishments and achievements.
1. Famous Family
John F. Kennedy was born to Rose and Joseph Kennedy. His father, Joseph Kennedy, was extraordinarily rich and highly effective. Franklin D. Roosevelt named Joseph Kennedy the pinnacle of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and appointed him ambassador to Great Britain in 1938.
One of 9 youngsters, JFK had a number of siblings who have been additionally concerned in politics. During Kennedy’s presidency, he appointed his 35-year-old brother, Robert Francis Kennedy, as lawyer basic of the United States.
After John F. Kennedy’s death, Robert ran for president in 1968. During his marketing campaign, he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan. Another brother, Edward “Ted” Kennedy was a Massachusetts Senator from 1962 till he died in 2009. John F. Kennedy’s sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, based the Special Olympics.
2. Health awareness
Obsessed together with his weight, JFK traveled with a toilet scale.
James Bond fan
A James Bond fanatic (“From Russia With Love” was one among his 10 favorite books), Kennedy tried his hand at his personal spy-chiller — a couple of coup d’etat masterminded by Vice President Lyndon Johnson.
3. Representative and Senator
JFK started his first time period in the public workplace—a seat within the U.S. House of Representatives in 1947—when he was 29 years old. He served three phrases within the House and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952.
4. Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
John F. Kennedy received a Pulitzer Prize in Biography for his guide “Profiles in Courage.” He is the one president to have received a Pulitzer Prize. The guide consists of quick biographies of eight U.S. Senators who risked destructive public opinion and their careers in politics to do what they believed to be right.
5. He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism throughout World War II
JFK joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1941. During World War II, he was given command of Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109. Around 2:00 a.m. on 2nd August 1943, he noticed a Japanese destroyer up shut and tried to show to assault. But PT-109 was rammed at an angle and lower in half by Japanese destroyer Amagiri.
Instead of surrendering, Kennedy and his surviving 10 crew-members swam to the tiny abandoned Plum Pudding Island, from the place they have been rescued. Also, regardless of being injured, Kennedy used a life jacket strap to tow his badly-burned senior enlisted mate.
For main his males to security, John F. Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the best non-combat ornament awarded for heroism by the U.S. Navy; in addition to the Purple Heart Medal for accidents.
6. In the Movie
With a cellphone call to Hollywood, JFK bought a film made, and never simply any film, however one which highlighted the tensions between the peace and navy factions inside his personal administration.
“Seven Days in May,” starring Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, was primarily based on the 1962 novel of the identical name a couple of Joint Chiefs of Staff plot to overthrow the president for supporting a nuclear disarmament treaty. “
He wanted to raise the national consciousness about the problems involved if generals get out of control,” historian Arthur Schlesinger mentioned.
Eager to get the film made, Kennedy decamped to Hyannis Port and turned over the White House grounds to the filmmakers for a weekend, even permitting them to stage riots.
7. 16 pens to signal
Kennedy used 16 pens to signal the Limited Test Ban Treaty on Sept. 24, 1963.
8. He established the Peace Corps in 1961
John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961, by Executive Order 10924. It was a program by way of which American volunteers would assist underdeveloped nations in areas reminiscent of schooling, farming, health care, and building.
The organization grew to five,000 members by March 1963 and 10,000 the next year. Since its formation in 2016, around 220,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps and served in 140 international locations. Its initiatives embody eradicating malaria in Africa and responding to disaster just like the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
John F. Kennedy is the youngest ever elected President of the United States
In the 1960 United States presidential election, John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon to turn into the 35th President of the United States.
At the age of 43, he was and stays the youngest ever elected U.S. president. However, Theodore Roosevelt is the youngest individual to ever turn into U.S. president.
He succeeded to the presidency, at age 42, following the assassination of President McKinley.
To date, JFK is the one president to have received a Pulitzer Prize, which he received in 1957 for his quantity of quick biographies Profiles in Courage. He additionally stays the one Roman Catholic president.
9. Long Time Target
Kennedy had been the goal of no less than 4 assassination makes an attempt before Dallas, one barely a month after he was elected president, when a retired postal employee, his automotive loaded with dynamite, adopted the president-elect from Hyannis Port to Georgetown to Palm Beach.
“Brother, they could have gotten me in Palm Beach.
There is no way to keep anyone from killing me,” Kennedy instructed a Secret Service agent shortly after the suspect was apprehended, recounted Thurston Clarke in “JFK’s Last Hundred Days.”
Two more assassination plots — one in Chicago, one in Tampa, Fla. — have been uncovered within the weeks before Nov. 22, 1963.
10. A charitable individual
Kennedy gave all his $100,000-a-year White House wage to charity.
11. First Catholic President
When John F. Kennedy ran for the presidency in 1960, one of many marketing campaign points was his Catholicism.
He brazenly mentioned his faith and defined in a speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association,
“I am not the Catholic candidate for president, I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic.”
12. Ambitious Presidential Goals
John F. Kennedy had bold presidential objectives. His mixed home and overseas insurance policies have been recognized by the time period “New Frontier.” He needed to fund social packages in schooling and housing in addition to medical look after the aged.
During his time period, Kennedy was in a position to obtain a few of his objectives, together with elevating the minimal wage and offering Social Security advantages for surviving family members.
President John F Kennedy additionally established the Peace Corps and set the plan in the movement for Americans to land on the moon by the top of the 1960s.
In phrases of civil rights, John F. Kennedy used government orders and personal appeals to help the civil rights movement. He additionally proposed legislative packages to assist with the motion, however, these didn’t go till after his death.
13. He contributed to the formation of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
To decelerate the nuclear arms race and to guard the surroundings against radioactive contamination, JFK started negotiations with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev for a treaty to handle these considerations.
This resulted in the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which was signed by the governments of the U.S.S.R., U.Okay. and the U.S. in Moscow on August 5, 1963.
The provisions of the treaty prohibited nuclear testing on the ground, within the environment, or underwater. All testing was to be pushed underground. 125 UN member states have ratified or acceded to the treaty since then.
14. WW-II
John F Kennedy used the coconut husk on which he’d scratched his PT-109 rescue message whereas stranded within the South Pacific throughout World War II as a paperweight on his Oval Office desk.
President Kennedy referred to his home program as the “New Frontier”. It witnessed the passage of a broad range of necessary reforms.
Among different issues, unemployment advantages have been expanded; support was offered to cities to enhance housing and transportation; a water air pollution control act was handed to guard rivers and streams; vital anti-poverty laws was handed together with improvements in social safety advantages and minimal wage; and essentially the most complete laws to help farmers was carried out since 1938 which included enlargement in rural electrification, soil conservation, crop insurance coverage, and farm credit score.
15. Popular
53 percent of Americans, or 90 million people, mentioned they’d shed tears within the 4 days between Kennedy’s death and funeral, in response to a National Opinion Research Center on the University of Chicago ballot carried out inside per week of the assassination.
Grandmother lived longer
Kennedy was the one U.S. president whose grandmother lived longer than he did.
16. John F. Kennedy averted nuclear conflict by way of his negotiations with Soviet leader Khrushchev
The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 16, 1962, in the course of the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Caused attributable to the placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union, it was the closest the Cold War got here to escalating right into a full-scale nuclear conflict.
After a period of tense negotiations began with a message from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to JFK on October 26, the Cuban Missile Crisis got here to an end on October 28, 1962.
The Soviet Union agreed to dismantle its weapons in Cuba and produce them back whereas the United States agreed that they might not invade Cuba without provocation. Secretly it was agreed that the US would take away its nuclear missiles from Turkey, however, wouldn’t declare so publicly.
17. Cuban Missile Crisis
In 1959, Fidel Castro used navy power to overthrow Fulgencio Batista and rule Cuba. Castro had shut ties to the Soviet Union. John F. Kennedy accepted a small group of Cuban exiles to go to Cuba to guide a revolt in what was referred to as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. However, their seizure harmed the popularity of the United States.
Soon after this failed mission, the Soviet Union started constructing nuclear missile bases in Cuba to guard it against future assaults.
In response, Kennedy quarantined Cuba, warning that an assault on the U.S. from Cuba could be seen as an act of conflict by the Soviet Union.
The ensuing standoff was often known as the Cuban missile disaster.
18. John F Kennedy initiated the Alliance for Progress for improvement of Latin America
President John F Kennedy initiated the Alliance for Progress in 1961 with the purpose to ascertain economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America.
Between 1962 and 1967, the US provided $1.four billion per year to Latin America for the event of the area. Growth in regional output per capita in Latin America within the 1960s was 2.6%, exceeding this system’s goal of two.5%.
Adult illiteracy was decreased and there have been enhancements in housing, financial establishments, tax legal guidelines, and administration.
Alliance for Progress had its deficiencies and failed by the 1970s primarily attributable to Latin American nations’ unwillingness to implement wanted reforms and presidents after Kennedy being much less supported of this system.
19. John F Kennedy took the U.S. economy out of recession by way of his reforms
The U.S. was in recession when Kennedy took office. He carried out varied measures to spice up the economy below his personal government anti-recessionary acceleration program.
Among different issues, essentially the most vital tax reforms because the New Deal has been carried out together with a brand new funding tax credit score.
GDP which had grown by a median of solely 2.2% every year throughout his predecessor Eisenhower’s presidency, expanded by a median of 5.5% from early 1961 to late 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated.
Also, inflation remained regular at around 1%, industrial manufacturing rose by 15% and unemployment decreased.
This price of growth continued until 1969 and hasn’t been repeated for such a sustained interval but.
20. John F Kennedy labored in direction of civil rights for African Americans
Kennedy supported racial integration and civil rights by way of his speeches. On March 6, 1961, he signed Executive Order 10925 which required authorities contractors to take affirmative motion to make sure all employees are handled equally no matter their race, creed, coloration, or national origin.
His Executive Order 11063 of November 1962 banned segregation in federally funded housing. On June 11, 1963, JFK gave his well-known civil rights deal with calling Americans to acknowledge civil rights as an ethical trigger.
His proposal to offer equal entry to public colleges and different amenities and higher safety of voting rights turned a part of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
21. JFK was the first president to bop with black girls at an inaugural ball.
John F Kennedy tried desperately to be taught French (the first girl was fluent), even interesting to daughter Caroline’s teacher for assistance.
22. John F Kennedy had Poor Health From Childhood
John F Kennedy suffered from a wide range of bodily illnesses all through his life. He contracted scarlet fever as a toddler and was hospitalized.
As he grew older, he had power back issues and underwent back surgical procedures in a number of instances.
In 1947 he was identified with Addison’s illness, regarded as the results of corticosteroids that have been used to fight his ongoing gastrointestinal illness.
One of JFK’s legs was shorter than the opposite, which contributed to his power back issues.
23. Equal Pay Act
He was answerable for the Equal Pay Act of 1963
On 10th June 1963, John F. Kennedy signed into legislation the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to abolish wage disparity primarily based on sex. It amended the present Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
EPA was a significant step in direction of closing the wage hole in women’s pay. Although EPA’s equal pay for equal work objectives has not been fully achieved, women’s salaries via-à-vis males have risen dramatically since its enactment.
JFK additionally proposed an overhaul of American immigration policy that might later result in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that abolished the quota system primarily based on national origins with a preference system that centered on the immigrant’s skills and family relationships with US residents.
24. Cigar
Kennedy purchased up 1,200 high-grade Cuban cigars the day before he was to order a ban on Cuban imports.
25. Four instances!
JFK obtained final rites 4 instances in his life: in 1947 after changing into gravely ailing in England; in 1951 whereas stricken with a high fever in Japan; in 1954 following back surgical procedure; on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas.
26. Assassination of JFK
John F Kennedy was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. on 22nd November 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas whereas touring together with his spouse Jackie Kennedy.
The murderer Lee Harvey Oswald denied having dedicated the crime and was by no means tried in court docket as he was fatally shot by a Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
Ruby mentioned he was distraught by JFK’s homicide and likewise needed to spare Jackie Kennedy the discomfort of a trial.
The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy concluded that Oswald acted alone within the capturing.
However, a later committee concluded in 1979 that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” Polls have discovered that solely 20 – 30% of the American inhabitants consider that Oswald had acted alone.
John F Kennedy stays the final American president to be assassinated.
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