jfk

 Life and Activities 1917 - 1963




1926 JFK in Football Uniform
of Dexter Academy



1926 JFK Navy Id card




Lt. John F. Kennedy in South Pacific




1957, John F. Kennedy
Biography to 1960 before of the presidential election
Source: db/iz/reh) © Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

1917
May 29: John Fitzgerald Kennedy is born in Brookline (Massachussetts/USA) being the second of nine children of the businessman and diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy (1888-1969) and his wife Rose, née Fitzgerald (1890-1995) in Brookline (Massachussetts/USA). John F. Kennedy‘s great-grandparents had been emigrated from Ireland in 1849 to the USA and settled down in Boston.
1926
Family moves to New York City.
1929
Kennedy‘s father purchases the summer house in Hyannis Port/Massachussetts – until today summer residence of the family.
1930
Attendance at the catholic boarding school Canterbury/Connecticut.
1931
Admission to the protestant boarding school Chaote/Connecticut.
1935
After the graduation trip to England to register at the London School of Economics. An illness forces Kennedy to return to the USA.
In autumn matriculation at Princeton University, he has to cancel his studies again due to health reasons.
1936-1940
Studies Political Sciences at Harvard University.
1937
Trips to France, Spain and Italy.
Reception at the Pope.
In December his father Joseph P. Kennedy becomes ambassador of the USA in Great Britain.
1938
May 29: Just as all his siblings, John F. Kennedy gets a 1 million dollar trust from his father for his 21st birthday.
1939
Trips to Poland, Russia, Germany, France and Turkey.
Working at the London embassy.
1940
June 21: Graduation Political Sciences. The title of his graduation essay is "Appeasement in Munich: The inevitable result of the slowness of the British democracy at the renunciation of a disarmament policy".
July: Publication of the revised graduation essay with the title "Why England Slept". The book becomes a bestseller with 40,000 sold copies.
1940/41
Studies Business Economics at Stanford University/California,resigning early.
1941
September: Entering the navy.
Working at the naval intelligence in Washington.
1942
January: Relocation to Charleston/South Carolina.
from July: Training for duty at sea.
1943
March: Kennedy gets the commandership for the patrol torpedo boat PT 109 in the Southern Pacific
August 2: The PT 109 is sunk by a Japanese destroyer; the crew is saved on August 7. Kennedy is celebrated as a hero in the American press.
December: Relocation to the USA.
1944
August: After the deadly plane crash of his elder brother, John F. Kennedy is supposed to realize his father‘s political plans.
1945
April: End of military service.
Summer: working as correspondent for Hearst-Press, Kennedy reports about the founding assembly of the United Nations in San Francisco, about the British Parliament elections and the Conference of Potsdam. Another illness forces Kennedy to return to the USA.
1946
November 5: In Boston elected into the House of Representatives for the Democratic Party.
1947
Summer: Trip to Ireland and England.
After a breakdown in London, Kennedy is diagnosed with Addison’s syndrome.
1952
November 4: Election to the Senate.
1953
September 12: Kennedy marries Jaqueline Bouvier (1929-1994). They have three children: Caroline (born 1957), John F. Kennedy Jr. (1960- 1999) and Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (1963-1963) who is dying only two days after his birth.
1953-1961
Senator of Massachussetts. His main interests are foreign affairs and the work laws.
1954/1955
Longer stays in hospitals due to two back surgeries.
He starts to write his essay "Profiles in Courage".
1956
August: Publication of "Profiles in Courage".
Kennedy nominates Adlai Stevenson to become presidential candidate at the Democratic Party Congress, but looses to be nominated candidate for vice-presidency himself.

Quelle: db/iz/reh) © Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

next: Biography from 1960