Chapter 1 Early Life Early Life Early Life and Career and Career and Career and Career and Career and Career I n November 1960 at the age of 43 John F Kennedy became the young est man ever elected president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt had become president at 42 when President William McKinley was assassinated but he was not elected at that age On Nov 22 1963 Kennedy was shot to death in Dallas Tex the fourth United States president to die by an assassin’s bullet Kennedy was the nation’s fi rst Roman Catholic president He was inaugurated in January 1961 succeeding Republican President Dwight D Eisenhower In one of the closest elections in the nation’s history Kennedy had defeated the Republican can didate Vice-President Richard M Nixon by little more than 100,000 votes During 10
Early Life and Career John F Kennedy being sworn in as U S president Jan 20 1961 Encyclopædia Britannica Inc his time in office Kennedy faced a num ber of foreign crises especially in Cuba and Berlin but managed to secure several landmark achievements such as conclud ing the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom winning approval of the international eco nomic development program Alliance for Progress and creating a volunteer service the Peace Corps to help other countries in their development efforts 11
John F Kennedy The Kennedy Family great-grandparents President Kennedy’s immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1858 They settled in Boston Mass His grandfathers Patrick J Kennedy and John F Honey Fitz Fitzgerald were born there Both men became influential in state politics Honey Fitz served several terms as Boston’s mayor and as a member of the United States House of Representatives Patrick Kennedy was the powerful boss of a Boston politi cal ward and served in both houses of the Massachusetts legislature Patrick’s son Joseph was a brilliant mathematician At the age of 25 he became the youngest bank president in the United States His fortune continued to grow and he was one of the few financiers to sense before hand the stock market crash of 1929 He made hundreds of millions of dollars Joseph married Rose Fitzgerald daughter of Honey Fitz on Oct 7 1914 Their first child Joseph Jr was born in 1915 John was born on May 29 1917 Seven other children followed Rosemary Kathleen Eunice Patricia Robert Jean and Edward called Teddy All were born in Brookline Mass a suburb of Boston 12 12
Early Life and Career A young John F Kennedy dressed in a police officer costume Encyclopædia Britannica Inc 13 13
