American politician John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known by his initials J.F.K., was born on May 29, 1917. Kennedy’s political career began in 1945, making him the 35th American president. Kennedy was a superb leader who served at the height of the Cold War, despite his brief term in government. He was a superb leader whose legacy endures. Come celebrate his big day with us today!
Key Points
Kennedy enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1940 as World War II became certain. He was in charge of the patrol torpedo boat PT-101 in December 1942, and the PT-109 in April 1943. He was assaulted and his PT-109 was split in two, but he lived. Kennedy received many awards for his service in the war, including the Purple Heart, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. Following the war, Kennedy worked briefly as a journalist when his father secured him a job at Hearst Newspapers. He was chosen to serve in Congress in 1947 and did so for six years. He won his 1952 Senate race. After publishing “Profiles in Courage” in 1957, which showed how senators risked their careers for their personal values, he also received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. In January 1960, he declared his desire to run for president after being re-elected to a second term in the Senate in 1958. He faced up against Richard Nixon in the presidential debate and narrowly defeated Nixon to win. On January 20, 1961, he took the oath of office as the 35th President of the United States.
Kennedy was a president who lacked fear. In 1962, he sought to topple the Cuban government and prepared an invasion. He oversaw the Peace Corps in Latin America and signed the first nuclear weapons pact in 1963. However, he was murdered in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. In Arlington National Cemetery, Kennedy was buried. His wife, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, and their four kids survived him. Kennedy is said to have had further children and engaged in other relationships over his lifetime.
John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas, 1963
Kennedy shot in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald, 1963
President Kennedy and the First Lady travelled to Dallas on November 22, 1963, as part of a campaign trip. Governor John Connally of the Democratic Party and his wife Nellie rode in the motorcade through the city with the Kennedys. Gunshots could be heard when it was passing through Dealey Plaza. Governor Connally received a wound, while President Kennedy, who had been shot twice, died. Kennedy passed away shortly after being taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
After the shooting, authorities detained Lee Harvey Oswald, a warehouse worker who had fired the rounds from a nearby warehouse. Oswald was a mystery former Marine who had fled to the USSR before coming back to the country. The suspect was killed by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, two days after the arrest while being moved to a different jail. Ruby was charged with murder in Oswald’s death and found guilty. While in prison awaiting a retrial, he passed away from cancer in January 1967.
Many people wondered if there was a conspiracy going on because of the extraordinary course of events. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed a committee to look into the assassination, which was presided over by Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme Court. The House Select Committee on Assassinations came to the conclusion that at least three shots were fired in 1979, but it didn’t reach any further definite conclusions. Kennedy was struck by two of Oswald’s three shots, but the report also expressed the suspicion that Kennedy “was probably slain as a consequence of a conspiracy.” Its conclusions did little to quell the persistent problem of Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.
On November 24, 1963, throngs of mourners filed past Kennedy’s casket in the Capitol’s rotunda. The next day, Kennedy was laid to rest in a state funeral at Arlington Cemetery. An estimated one million people lined the streets of Washington, DC to see the funeral procession, while representatives from 92 different countries attended the rituals. The assassination of John F. Kennedy would remain one of the most distressing public incidents in many Americans’ lives.
Who is Lee Harvey Oswald?
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine.
Due to the absence of a typical family life, Oswald was classified as “emotionally disturbed” by a psychiatrist when he was thrown in juvenile jail at the age of 12 for truancy. He attended 12 schools in his formative years, dropped out several times, and eventually joined the Marines at the age of 17.
While serving in the Marines, Oswald was twice court-martialed and imprisoned. In October 1959, after being honourably discharged from the Marine Corps’ active service and transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve, he travelled to Europe and defected to the Soviet Union. He had a daughter, resided in Minsk, Byelorussia, and was married to Marina, a Russian. He and his wife returned to the country in June 1962, and he finally settled in Dallas.
Lee harvey oswald assassination
Lee Harvey Oswald, the man thought to be JFK’s killer, died just two days after the tragedy. Oswald was shot by a Dallas nightclub owner who said he did it “for Jackie.” By being at the ideal location at the ideal moment, the author of this Daily Sketch piece was able to email a “exclusive” story back to the London-based newspaper. Numerous rumours about criminals, the Russians, and perhaps the CIA being involved raise doubts about whether Oswald was the actual murderer.
The country was robbed of the closure it so urgently needed after the death of John F. Kennedy when Lee Harvey Oswald was assassinated by Jack Ruby.
What may have occurred in The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald if the murderer had survived to be tried for the murder of America’s beloved president?
John F Kennedy conspiracy
According to an ABC News poll in 2003, 70% of Americans think that a larger scheme led to Kennedy’s assassination.
Some claim that the rounds’ trajectory did not match Oswald’s vantage point on the sixth level of the Texas School Book Depository.
Others claim there was a second shooter who may have been on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza. Others think there is a far bigger conspiracy.
Was Kennedy assassinated by CIA agents acting either on the orders of Vice President Lyndon Johnson or in retaliation for the Bay of Pigs? By agents of the KGB? Mob retaliation against Kennedy’s brother for starting the prosecution of crime syndicates? Only 32% of those surveyed by ABC think Oswald committed the murder on his own, demonstrating how seriously most people have taken the allegations about one of history’s most famous political killings.
