Historical Figures

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

John F. Kennedy (photo:public domain)

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) - called JFK, the American president. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brooklyn in 1917 into a well-to-do family with Irish roots. He had eight siblings. He attended the best private schools and later attended the London School of Economics and Harvard.

He graduated in 1940. In 1941 he joined the Navy and set out to fight on the front of World War II (he used torpedo boats in the Pacific). In 1943 he returned to America, and two years later he was demobilized. In 1946 he began his political career. In 1952 he became a senator for the first time. Eight years later, he ran for the presidential election, which he won. Two years after taking office, he signed a law prohibiting racial discrimination.

During his presidency, a failed Bay of Pigs invasion took place. He was accused of disturbing the balance in the Middle East after he sold rockets to Israel and decided to train its soldiers. During the Cuban crisis of 1962, he opposed the invasion of Cuba and the use of nuclear weapons, thus winning a war of nerves with Nikita Khrushchev. In an attempt to secure his re-election in 1964, he began his pre-election tour in America. On November 21, 1963, he was shot and killed by an assassin in Dallas.