John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States. He served from January 1961 until November 1963, when he was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. People called him JFK for short. He is one of the most famous presidents in American history, partly for what he did in office and partly because of how his life ended.

Kennedy was born in 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. His family was wealthy, well known, and deeply involved in politics. He had eight brothers and sisters. As a child, he was often sick, and he stayed sick for much of his life. During World War II, he served in the Navy in the Pacific Ocean. A Japanese ship rammed and sank his small patrol boat. Kennedy swam for hours through dark water, towing a wounded crewmate by a life jacket strap held in his teeth. He came home a war hero.

After the war, he ran for Congress and won. In 1960, he was elected president. He beat Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections in U.S. history. Kennedy was the first Catholic president. At 43, he was also the youngest person ever elected to the office.

Kennedy became president during a tense time called the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union were rivals, and both had nuclear weapons. In October 1962, American spy planes spotted Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, only 90 miles from Florida. For thirteen days, the world worried about nuclear war. This event is called the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy set up a naval blockade around Cuba and demanded the missiles be removed. The Soviets backed down, and the missiles were taken away.

Kennedy also pushed the country to dream big. In a 1961 speech, he promised that America would land a person on the Moon before the end of the decade. He did not live to see it, but in 1969, the Apollo 11 mission did exactly that. He also supported the growing Civil Rights Movement and called for new laws to end racial segregation.

On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was riding in an open car through Dallas when he was shot. He died within an hour. A man named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the killing, but Oswald was shot two days later before he could stand trial. Many Americans have wondered ever since whether Oswald acted alone or was part of a larger plot. Historians and government investigators have studied the case for decades, and the debate has never fully ended.