John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on March 29, 1917, to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose F. Kennedy. John would be nicknamed Jack throughout his childhood. As a young boy, Jack was very ill a lot of the time, and had already contracted several diseases at age three. He was not expected to live adulthood. Jack lived every day like it could be his last; however, Jack was able to go to school, and was actually quite the prankster during high school in particular.
After graduating from high school, Kennedy went on to study law and politics, and he wrote his first bestselling book about Britain in World War II at a young age. This established Kennedy as a generally known name in politics before he even participated in the government.
Kennedy then enlisted in the US army in WWII, and became the commander of a torpedo submarine. When it was attacked by Japan, JFK spent several hours swimming around the wreckage, finding every survivor, and then they were able to swim three miles to the nearest land, where they would be rescued.
After returning home from the war after the submarine incident, Kennedy’s older brother died, and Kennedy’s father began to pressure JFK into running in politics. Kennedy didn’t really want to, but he did it anyway. In 1946, he was elected to the House of Representatives, and then in 1953 he was elected into the senate. Also in 1953 JFK would marry. Finally, in 1960, JFK was nominated for president, and he won the election.
Kennedy’s two biggest accomplishments as president were probably pushing for the space race and delaying the Vietnam war for as long as he did.
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 2nd, 1963. He had been riding in a parade with his family, and was shot twice, one of those being fatal.