John F. Kennedy

Among his many honors as President of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy remains the youngest man ever elected to the office of Chief Executive, and the youngest man to die while still fulfilling his duties. Serving as America's President, John F. Kennedy held his office for 1000 days, dying November 22nd, 1963, assassinated at the age of 46.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29th, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, the second son of nine children of the wealthy Roman Catholic Kennedy family. Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Kennedy's father, was a self-improving multi-millionaire who had built a financial empire through projects in banking, the stock market, ship building and the film industry and liquor distribution. Kennedy's mother, Rose Fitzgerald was of Irish ancestry like her husband, and daughter of former Boston mayor John F. Fitzgerald. As family patriarch, Joseph Kennedy pushed his children to achieve and often encouraged them to compete with one another. John Kennedy's childhood was one spent at exclusive private schools, including Canterbury School of New Milford, Connecticut and preparatory school at Choate Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut.

While Joseph Kennedy served as the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, John Kennedy, then eighteen years of age, spent a year at the London School of Economics. John returned to America to attend Princeton University, but left during his freshman term due to a case of severe jaundice. His illness is believed to have been caused by a condition the Kennedy family kept secret throughout his life. John Kennedy was of the 1 in 100,000 people afflicted with Addison's disease, a rare but serious disorder which affects the endocrine system.

Kennedy entered Harvard in 1936...

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...days after his arrest as a suspect in President Kennedy's assassination. The conclusions of an extensive investigation into Kennedy's death and Oswald's murder were documented by the Warren Report.

At the time of his death, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was survived by family: His wife of 10 years, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, daughter Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, and son John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr., as well as his parents and siblings including notably brothers Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy.

In the years following his assassination, President John F. Kennedy has been commemorated for his civic and humanitarian works through such named institutions as Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Space Center, the John F. Kennedy Library in Washington, and San Francisco's John F. Kennedy University.