John F. Kennedy - Biography of a True Leader! John F. Kennedy is considered as one of the greatest Presidents of United States who had only one dream: to bring his nation on the front seat as a leader of the world and he tried his heart & soul to make his dream come true. Below are some facts and information on the life and history of John F. Kennedy.
John Fitzgerald. Kennedy was born on May 29 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts to a highly successful businessman Joseph Patrick Kennedy of Irish origin and Rose Fitzgerald. He was second eldest son of nine children to Joseph Patrick Kennedy among four boys and five girls, and was named Jack, further he was named John Fitzgerald in honor to John Francis Fitzgerald (his maternal grandfather). He was a grandson to Patrick Kennedy who had shifted from Ireland and settled to Massachusetts in 1849 to explore new possibilities of business. His grandfathers Patrick Joseph Kennedy and John Francis Fitzgerald were successful and very powerful politicians in Boston.
Although John was born in a successful businessman's house in a very royal surrounding and had almost every facility which he could enjoy and had a very comfortable life to live, he was never a healthy boy or we can say he could never stay healthy. Every now and then he suffered from serious injuries and at least one disease. In his childhood he suffered many deadly diseases such as measles, chicken pox, scarlet fever etc. When John was about three years old, Kennedy family moved to a new house, which was few blocks away from their old house, the new house was very beautiful and huge with twelve rooms.
John's father Mr. Kennedy always tried to induce the qualities of competition and hard work in his children and wished that his children should be the most successful in whatever they do in future and he did everything he could. He always encouraged his children to take on new challenges and achieve success. When Kennedy children visited their Hyannis Port house on Cape Cod in summer, they always took part in various sports, swimming and sailing etc. Every time Kennedy boys went out in the field for sports and had some quarrel and a fight, John was the one who used to get hurt most, many a times John had to undergo serious surgeries because of the wounds he used to get in those fights.
In his school days, John was sent to Choate, a boarding school in Connecticut where he had gained a good popularity among other boys. During his school days John was not more than an average student, but he enjoyed playing various games such as golf, basketball, tennis, football etc. and also had developed interested in reading and had History and English as his favorite subjects. In year 1936, John graduated from Choate.
Further he joined Harvard University where his elder brother Joe was studying. Here also John continued with his hobbies and games he played. During his graduation at Harvard, one day, John met a life threatening accident while playing; a disk was ruptured in his spine. John could never recover from the injury (internally) caused by this accident and suffered from backache for rest of his life. In 1937, Kennedy family, except for Joe and John who were studying at Harvard, moved to England after Mr. Kennedy was appointed US Ambassador to England. Mr. Kennedy's job and the situation in the Europe and rest of the world attracted John and he became very much interested in European politics.
John graduated from Harvard in 1940 and joined navy with his elder brother Joe on the nation's call in response to the World War II, which began in September 1939. Joe was appointed as a flyer and sent on missions in Europe (who was killed in a dangerous mission in Europe) and John was appointed at a post of Lieutenant on the Patrol Torpedo boat PT-109 which was deployed on South Pacific to stop the enemy ships from delivering food and ammunitions to Japanese soldiers. John headed a crew of twelve people. On the night of August 2 1943 a Japanese destroyer rushed them in full speed, John tried to save PT-109 but couldn't help and the destroyer crushed PT-109 killing a couple of crew members. John was hit on his back where he had old injuries. Even when badly injured, he saved one of his crew members from drowning and led his team to safe place. Because of John, his crew members could survive and were rescued, further he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his bravery.
When finally, the war was over, it was time for John to decide what he wished to take up on as his career. His father convinced him to fill in the nomination for the seat in Massachusetts' eleventh congressional district. Even when he had not decided to get into politics, just for his family pride John filled in the nomination and even won the seat in 1947. Further, John followed a democratic path and served in the House of Representatives for about three full terms. He was elected on the post of US Senate in 1952. Few months later, John married 24 years old Jacqueline Bouvier who worked as a writer with Washington Times-Herald. Within a couple of years after his marriage, John suffered from his age-old back injury and had to undergo two surgeries. During the same time period Kennedy wrote books and also won the Pulitzer Prize for his book 'Profiles in Courage' in 1957, the same years John's daughter Caroline was born.
Because of his work, John was climbing steps of popularity among people and was nominated for several high profiled posts such as Vice Presidential seat. John had decided to campaign in the up coming election for the Presidential seat and worked very hard to secure one. In 1960, his party declared that John would be their next candidate for the Presidential seat. In 1960 General Elections, John Kennedy successfully beat the Republican Party's candidate Richard M. Nixon and became the 35th President of United States and also youngest ever President. From the very first day of his term, John cleared his views to the world and appealed American citizens to do whatever they can for America but not to ask what their nation can do for them. John worked real hard to give his country what his American brothers and sisters had expected from him. He was so busy that he read about half a dozen newspapers while finishing his breakfast, managed several important works and meetings in whole day, tried to bring balance in various fields such as education, financial sector and much more. His sole aim was to give his best and bring-about the best decisions in favor of his nation.
His thinking was not only confined to America, but he wanted peace and freedom in whole world. To achieve his aims he created a group of volunteers which was named 'Peace Corps' (which today also exists) to offer their help in any social area such as education, medical etc.
In sixties, Soviet Union was the leader in space related programs and John wanted his nation to be leader in every field, even in exploring the space. John F. Kennedy was probably the first President to ask congress to approve a package of about 22 billion dollars for 'Project Apollo'.
After World War II was over, the bitterness between the United States and Soviet Union was at its pique, there was no exchange of firing but both the countries were burning in the fire of revenge. John was worried about the fact that even a small spark could cause a war between America and Soviet Union claiming millions of lives. Kennedy tried his best in keeping an eye on the latest happenings and also tried to end the Cold War between US and Soviet Union. It was his effort because of which a nuclear ban treaty was signed between United States and Soviet Union in 1963 ensuring safety of millions of lives.
One of the complex problems Kennedy ever dealt with was the movement of American people for civil rights law. Kennedy personally believed that black people should have equal rights as white people, and wanted this bill to be passed by Congress. However he was afraid that if people go on protesting in support of the civil rights, it would be very hard to make Congress pass the bill, but his stance was misunderstood by the group which was supporting the civil rights law, they thought that Kennedy was not much interested in bringing equilibrium in the process and not even willing to help pass the bill in congress. Finally, in June 1963, Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Law to the Congress and appealed Americans to end the racism. He also appealed Americans collectively work towards the progress of United States and to enjoy the happy life in United States regardless of thinking about the skin color.
Assassination Few months later, on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy visited Texas and was responding thousands of citizens in a rally, organized in his honor, a person named Lee Harvey Oswald shot him. John was seriously wounded and died within short period of time after that. Police held the person who killed John F. Kennedy but no one could ever get much of information from him as another person named Jack Ruby shot him leaving numerous questions unanswered.
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