John F Kennedy, more commonly known by his initials, JFK, served as the 35th President of the United States, between 1961 until his assassination in 1963. This got me thinking: What are some facts about John F Kennedy?
Today, JFK is often remembered as being one of the best presidents the US has ever had.
His short presidency would be quite intriguing, seeing both the Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs Invasion, both of which he was criticized heavily for.
15. The Kennedy Family
John F Kennedy was born to Joseph P Kennedy Sr. and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald. At the time of his birth, John was born into the upper echelons of Massachusetts society, coming from one of the wealthiest families in the state.
Kennedy’s father, Joseph, had started his business career as a banker, eventually growing a large real estate portfolio too. During WWI, Joseph would make millions from owning Bethlehem Steel, which made steel for naval vessels.
In the interwar period, Joseph would make millions on the stock market. Kennedy would also make millions distributing liquor after prohibition, and consolidating Hollywood, producing thousands of hours worth of movies.
On top of this, John’s grandfather, P. J. Kennedy, was also a successful businessman. P. J. had started out owning saloons, before becoming a prominent banker and coal mine owner, which all made JFK incredibly rich!
14. His Royal Blood
According to both family lore, and genealogists, the US-based Kennedy political family is descended from the O’Kennedy family in Ireland. Historically, the O’Kennedys were rather powerful, being the Kings of Ormond.
Over time, however, the family lost a series of wars against the British. These wars not only lost the O’Kennedys much of their prestige, but also much of their land. By the 19th Century, all of their land had been taken by the British.
This forced the O’Kennedys, now just Kennedys, to seek opportunities in America. This is where P. J. Kennedy would go in 1849, thus beginning the Kennedy family in the US.
Using his considerable wealth, Joseph P. Kennedy (JFK’s father) would have their family lineage drawn up, going all the way back the the O’Kennedys and before.
If the Kingdom of Ormond were to be re-established today, a Kennedy would be crowned king!
13. Received a Pulitzer Prize
Whilst a Massachusetts senator, John F Kennedy and ghostwriter Ted Sorenson, sat down and begun drafting Kennedy’s second book: Profiles in Courage, which was published in 1957.
Unlike his first book Why England Slept, which focused on what if Britain hadn’t used appeasement before WWII, this book was meant to detail eight famed US senators, who broke from their respective parties.
Kennedy’s first book was widely criticized, primarily for its “lack of vision” and the fact that its title was believed to have been published to syphon money away from Winston Churchill’s While England Slept classic.
However, Kennedy’s second book was widely received. In fact, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his efforts, becoming the first president to have ever received the award!
12. JFK: A Medical History
Today, it’s a pretty common practice for presidential candidates to release their medical records. When Kennedy was running in the 1960’s, it was not.
As such, the overwhelming majority of the American public didn’t know how unwell their president truly was. And this wasn’t something brought on by public service, it was something Kennedy had suffered from his entire life!
From an early age, Kennedy suffered from a series of illnesses, primarily stomach ulcers, colitis, urinary tract infections, prostatitis and most notably spinal and back pain (the latter of which was primarily in his later life).
Due to this, Kennedy was in-and-out of hospital his entire life. This eventually led Bobby Kennedy to joke, that if anyone were to write a book about his brother, it would be entitled: JFK: A Medical History.
11. Avid Reader
As a result of Kennedy’s numerous serious illnesses, he spent much of his time in and out of hospital. Going to a hospital in the 1930’s, was far worse than today, as there was literally nothing to do.
Spending much of his childhood there, Kennedy soon found that the best way to pass the time was reading. Over the course of his childhood, Kennedy would essentially self-teach himself what other politicians would be taught in school.
According to Bobby Kennedy, years later, their mother, Rose, used to joke that she could hardly see John due to the piles of books stacked around his hospital bed. This would never stop John from reading.
In fact, it was quite the opposite. Even well into his presidency, John would continue to be an avid reader, reading not only his daily briefings, but also several books per month!
10. Decorated WWII Service
At the onset of the American involvement in WWII, millions of young men joined the military in hopes of serving their country. Among these men were a number of future presidents, including Reagan, Carter and Bush Sr.
Initially, both the Navy and the Army turned JFK down on account of his poor health. However, this did not dissuade Kennedy, who’s father’s influence soon convinced the Navy to allow JFK to join up.
Here, partly on account of his poor health, the Navy placed Kennedy on a PT-109 torpedo boat. These boats would primarily serve in the Pacific Theater, where they’d attack and sink much larger Japanese vessels.
On one of these missions, Kennedy’s PT-109 was sunk by the Japanese. Here, the future president would risk his own life to save his shipmates, swimming them to a nearby island. In doing this, he would also injure his back.
For his efforts, he was awarded the Purple Heart in 1943.
9. His PT-109 Was Found 60 Years Later
For Kennedy, the PT-109 was the source of a number of things that would stay with him until his death in 1963. Primarily, Kennedy kept a coconut shell from the island he swam his shipmates too, in his home.
Later, this coconut shell would sit on the Resolute Desk too!
To many, Kennedy’s PT-109 was just another ship lost during the war; and just another one sat at the bottom of the Pacific someone. Indeed, no one really knew where it was, not the Americans, and not the Japanese.
Upon ascending to the presidency, Kennedy’s story got out there, with several people becoming determined to find the ship the president almost died on. All to no avail.
Alas, people did not stop. Indeed, this paid off, with famed deep-sea diver, Robert Ballard (who also discovered the Titanic!) in 2002. This discovery was filmed at the time, and later became a National Geographic documentary.
8. Televised Presidential Debates
Prior to the 1960 Presidential Election, the vast majority of people would listen to presidential debates on the radio. Almost all radio channels would broadcast them in order to help ever voter make a clear-cut decision.
However, the 1960 Presidential Election was the first one, where a sizable portion of American households had TV sets. In keeping with this, radio debates would become televised too.
As a result, the first candidates whose debates were televised were those between JFK and Richard Nixon. Here is where something incredibly strange would happen…
To many who were listening on the radio, Nixon seemed like the better candidate. Nixon was far more decisive and eloquent, whilst JFK seemed rather indecisive and unsure of himself.
However, to those watching the televised versions, Kennedy seemed like the better candidate. He wore makeup, which made him look younger and healthier, than Nixon, who didn’t wear makeup, and looked older and quite frail.
7. Kennedy-Johnson Rivalry
During the 1960 Presidential Election, the Democrats wanted someone who was charismatic enough to win the hearts and minds, to beat the then-vice-president, Richard Nixon, as Eisenhower had served his two terms.
As they had done every election prior, the Democrats held a convention, which saw numerous candidates. In the end, it came down to John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson, which split the party.
JFK was beloved by the northern Democrats (as he was, himself, a northerner) whilst southern Democrats preferred Texan Lyndon B Johnson. This led to months of bitter campaigning against one another.
In turn, this led to an animosity between the pair, before JFK was finally chosen. From, he chose to offer Johnson the VP position on his ticket, where he’d face (and later beat!) Richard Nixon.
6. Learned From President Hoover
Like Kennedy, President Hoover came from money. Whilst Kennedy was set to inherit his father’s fortune (after his elder brother’s death in 1944), Hoover, was a self-made millionaire, having been a successful mining engineer.
Due to this, Kennedy didn’t really need his congressional, senatorial or presidential salaries, as many other presidents do. Instead of keeping it, Kennedy chose to save it, and donate it to charity.
Over the course of his career, this was highlighted on multiple occasions. Primarily, this facts was brought up during JFK’s numerous congressional and senatorial elections, where it was used to justify that he wasn’t in it for the money…
Whilst not a major factor, this was actually brought up during the 1960 Presidential Election. Here, it was used to get votes from a number of liberal groups the Democrats hadn’t been able to get (at the time).
5. The American Concorde
Over the course of the 1950’s, aircraft technology had progressed greatly. At the start of the decade, most airliners were piston or turboprops. By the end of it, a large number of them were more reliable jets.
By the early 1960’s, most military jets were supersonic, with most aircraft manufacturers looking to produce a supersonic airliner. In 1962, the British and French joined forces, collaborating on what was called Concorde.
At the time, the US led the aviation world in most regards. The Europeans had extensive drawings and were about to begin building a prototype, the US on the other hand, had nothing.
So President Kennedy decided to get involved. Here, he gave a speech where he said that the US will build a larger and much faster supersonic transport, that outclassed Concorde in every regard!
This actually got pretty close, coming down to the Boeing 2707 and Lockheed L-2000. Alas, neither of these jets would be built for a number of reasons.
4. He Removed His Top Hat
Today, we often picture top hats as being something from the 18th and 19th centuries. However, few actually know that it used to be part of the official dress for the US President (as still kind of is!)
Due to the top hat’s popularity, early presidents adopted it for a number of reasons. As a result it unofficially became a part of their official dress, before actually becoming official.
Consequently, every president until JFK wore a top hat on official occasions. So would JFK. However, JFK didn’t like the top hat, seeing it as something that looked rather silly, and not fit for a modern president, such as himself.
As a result, he stopped wearing the top hat. Subsequent presidents would follow his lead, with not a single president since JFK wearing a top hat on official business!
3. Soviet-American Mission to The Moon
When John F Kennedy became president, the world was at the height of the Cold War. At this point, there was genuinely a threat of nuclear Armageddon if even one thing went wrong.
Both sides were sinking their entire economies (and sometimes a little bit more!) into proving that their ideology was best. This was primarily done through the arms race.
When Kennedy came to power, the public had gotten increasingly interested in space, particularly, the moon. With this, the American public wanted America to be the first nation to go to the moon.
Kennedy, however, wanted to kill two birds with one stone: Go to the moon, and become friendlier with the Soviets. To do this, he offered a joint Soviet-American mission to the moon.
Naturally, the Soviets declined, and this mission never went ahead, with America landing the first man on the moon in 1969.
2. Heavy Smoker
Prior to the late 1960’s, people didn’t really know that tobacco was bad for them. Due to this, it became socially acceptable to smoke in public, with it often being more acceptable to smoke than not smoke.
For many in the upper echelons of society, cigarettes were far too unsophisticated for them. Instead of cigarettes, they would often smoke cigars instead. This is what JFK did in particular, preferring Cuban cigars.
However, his presidency also preside over a time where the US imposed sanctions on Cuban imports, due to Castro’s communist rule in the country.
Not wanting to lose the supply of his favorite cigars, Kennedy bought thousands of them, only a day before the embargos came into effect.
By the same token, Jackie Kennedy was also a heavy smoker. However, JFK managed to convince her to keep it from the press, which she did (although there are numerous photos of the First Lady smoking today!)
1. Assassination Attempts
Perhaps the most famous day of Kennedy’s presidency, was November 22 1963. On this day, JFK’s motorcade was driving through the streets of Dallas, when JFK was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.
But what if I told you that Oswald’s assassination attempt wasn’t the first on Kennedy? In fact, Kennedy was the subject of numerous assassination attempts, many of which were never carried out.
One, however, was sort of, carried out.
In 1960, then-President-elect Kennedy had just become the first Catholic to sit in the White House. Anti-Catholic sentiment was not uncommon in the US, especially among older generations (for various reasons).
Driven by his hatred of Catholics, former postal worker Richard Paul Pavlick decided to ram his dynamite-filled car, into Kennedy’s. However, Pavlick abandoned this plan after seeing Jackie and a young Caroline Kennedy with JFK.
Regardless, Pavlick was eventually pulled over by police, and arrested. Here, he would be sent to a mental hospital.
Which are your favorite facts about John F Kennedy? Tell me in the comments!