When John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was sworn in as president of the United States on January 20, 1961, at the age of 43, he became the youngest man in American history to hold the office. When, on November 22, 1963, he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, he became the youngest president to die in office.
After graduating from Harvard in 1940, Kennedy joined the US Navy, serving as a Commanding Officer of Torpedo Boat PT-109 and PT-59. Kennedy was revered as a hero for his actions following the sinking of PT-109; by the time he was honorably discharged in 1944, he had earned a Purple Heart, two Bronze Stars, and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
Kennedy began his political career as a Democratic Congressman in his hometown of Boston, and advanced to the Senate in 1953 -- the same year that he married Jacqueline Bouvier. Kennedy narrowly won the presidential election against Richard Nixon and was inaugurated on January 1961, famously saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country.” While in office, Kennedy launched economic initiatives that revitalized the country, weathered the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, engaged in hard-nosed negotiations with the Soviets to end the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis, and grappled with the first rumblings of the war in Vietnam.
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