John F. Kennedy, who became the youngest person elected as the President of the United States and then tragically the youngest one assassinated, won his presidency on Nov. 8, 1960. He was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, after he was shot in the neck and head in Dallas, Tex. as he rode in a motorcade with his wife Jackie Kennedy. He is remembered as one of the most well-liked presidents of all time.
Look back at John F. Kennedy's memorable life and tragic death.
John F. Kennedy, who became the youngest person elected as the President of the United States and then tragically the youngest one assassinated, won his presidency on Nov. 8, 1960. He was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, after he was shot in the neck and head in Dallas, Tex. as he rode in a motorcade with his wife Jackie Kennedy. He is remembered as one of the most well-liked presidents of all time.
John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass. on May 29, 1917, to Joseph and Rose Kennedy. He was the second of nine children to grow up in the prominent Irish Catholic political family. Kennedy is pictured here with his brother Joseph Jr. (L) and his father (C).
From left to right, Joseph Kennedy Jr., Kathleen Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy and John F. Kennedy spent time in Cohasset, Mass., a town about 25 miles south of his birthplace in Brookline.
Kennedy attended Choate, a boarding school in Wallingford, Conn., at the age of 14 in 1931. Despite experiencing numerous health problems during this time, including his 1934 diagnosis of colitis, an inflammation of the colon, he went on to attend Harvard College in 1936 and graduated four years later.
Kennedy returned to the Boston academic scene in 1956, at 39 years old, to deliver the commencement address to the graduating class at Northeastern University and receive an honorary degree from Dr. Carl S. Ell (R), the president of the school.
Kennedy would go on to marry Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, who later became the esteemed Jacqueline Kennedy, on Sept. 12, 1953. He had been in his first year in the U.S. Senate at the time of the wedding.
John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy met at a dinner party when he was a congressman. Their first years of marriage were trying ones. Kennedy underwent two near-fatal spinal operations in 1954 and Jackie suffered a miscarriage in 1955 and then gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Arabella, a year later. Yet on Nov. 27, 1957, Caroline Bouvier Kennedy was born, a healthy baby. The couple’s son, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., was born in 1960, though he died at the age of 39 when the small plane he was piloting crashed in 1999. Jackie Kennedy also gave birth to Patrick Bouvier Kennedy in 1963, though he was five-and-a-half weeks premature and died two days later. Caroline, who is the only surviving child, served as the United States Ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017.
Senator (and future president) John Kennedy shares an intimate moment with his wife Jacqueline at their table at the Waldorf Astoria in New York on Nov. 22, 1956. The couple stopped by for cocktails before attending a society gala sponsored by the wife of the U.S. ambassador to Cuba.
John F. Kennedy, who was a Massachusetts senator at the time, kicked off his presidential campaign tour in Nashua, New Hampshire in January 1960.
John F. Kennedy gets showered with confetti on the campaign trail in Illinois on Jan. 1, 1960. His televised debate with Republican candidate Richard Nixon marked a turning point in the campaign. The youthful Kennedy appeared next to a tired, sickly-looking Nixon, inching him into a slight lead in the race.
John F. Kennedy, the Democratic presidential nominee, sees a playback of his televised appearance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 3, 1960. Though some had questioned whether the Senator had enough experience, his eloquence earned him countless supporters.
Senator John F. Kennedy takes a moment of rest on his plane during the 1960 Presidential campaign.
Presidential candidate John Kennedy meets with his brother Bobby Kennedy, who was also his campaign organizer, in a hotel suite in Los Angeles on July 1, 1960. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated eight years later while campaigning for president himself.
John F. Kennedy flashes his famous smile as he reads of his official nomination for president in the New York Daily News on July 13, 1960.
JFK, here the Democratic presidential nominee, rides with Jackie in a ticker tape parade on Broadway in New York City during his presidential campaign on Oct. 19, 1960.
Kennedy delivers his inaugural address after taking the oath of office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20, 1961.
President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy attend the inaugural ball in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20, 1961. Robert Frost spoke at the inauguration earlier in the day. “The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans,” said Kennedy in his inauguration speech.
President-Elect John F. Kennedy shares a quiet breakfast with his daughter Caroline, who was four years old at the time, in the White House in 1961.
John F. Kennedy led the country through trying times, including the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, in which the CIA sent armed Cuban exiles into Cuba in attempt to overthrow the Communist Castro government, as well as the Cuban missile crisis, in which Cuban and Soviet forces faced off against the United States with deadly nuclear warheads.
More than a year into his presidency, Kennedy takes time to play with his children Caroline and John in the Oval Office in October 1962. In a Facebook video posted by Caroline years later, she stated that “I’ve thought about him and missed him every day of my life.”
John F. Kennedy laughs with reporters after a White House press conference on May 9, 1963, in Washington, D.C. Just a few weeks later, he delivered his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. JFK harbored a lifelong interest in foreign policy that dated back to his days at Harvard.
JFK burns the midnight oil at the White House in Washington, D.C. Kennedy headed up a domestic policy program called the New Frontier that expanded the social safety net.
JFK surveys the cake for his birthday party at Madison Square Garden in New York on May 19, 1962. It was here that screen icon Marilyn Monroe famously sang a breathy rendition of “Happy Birthday” to the president, wearing a dress studded with Swarovski crystals that had literally been sewn onto her body. Despite the first family’s idyllic appearance, JFK was known for his affairs. He most famously had an affair with Monroe during a weekend in Palms Springs, Calif.
John F. Kennedy was fatally struck in the neck and head as he was passing through Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was later arrested for the killing, but was shot and killed two days later as he was being led to jail.
Jacqueline Kennedy stands up in the presidential car to lift up her husband’s body just moments after he has been shot on Nov. 22, 1963.
Kennedy’s assassination was front page news nationwide. The event transformed the way breaking news was covered. Kennedy’s appearance in Dallas was being filmed, and horrified viewers watched as breaking updates were reported and news of his death was delivered immediately on live television.
Jackie Kennedy mourns the death of her husband with their children Caroline Kennedy and John. F. Kennedy Jr., and the president’s brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy on Nov. 25, 1963 in Washington, D.C.
John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes the casket of President Kennedy outside St. Matthews Cathedral following the funeral mass in Washington on Nov. 25, 1963. His mother, Jacqueline, and uncle Robert stand beside him.
Representatives from more than 90 countries attended the state funeral for Kennedy on Nov. 25, 1963, in Washington, D.C.
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States on Air Force One in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, just hours after Kennedy was assassinated.
