John F. Kennedy was the thirty-fifth president of the United States. He was president for only a short time, from 20 January 1961 to 22 November 1963. But he is one of the best loved American presidents ever, together with Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. When he died suddenly, he was still a young man, only forty-six years old. His death was a terrible shock for people in the US and around the world.
Kennedy’s full name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy, but people often call him JFK. He was the second youngest man to become president of the US (Theodore Roosevelt, at forty-two, was younger by a year). There are many interesting ‘firsts’ about Kennedy. He was the first American president to be born in the 1900s. He was the first Catholic president, and the first president to win a Pulitzer Prize, a special award from Columbia University, for a book that he wrote (the book was called Profiles in Courage, and it was about eight US senators who showed political courage). He was also the first US president to die before his mother and father.
John F. Kennedy died more than fifty years ago, but the world still remembers him. There are many books about him, and in 1991 Oliver Stone made a film, JFK, about his death. Important buildings and other places carry his name. Perhaps the most famous is the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, but there is also the John F. Kennedy Space Center, John F. Kennedy University, and many schools. The government of Canada even called a mountain by his name: Mount Kennedy in the Kluane National Park in the Yukon.
But why did people love Kennedy so much? He was a strong leader who wanted to do his best for his country. He was intelligent and he worked hard. He was good-looking and charming. People liked him and they believed in his ideas. He was also very good at giving speeches. If you listen to Kennedy’s famous speeches today, you can easily understand why people admired him. He gave them hope for the future.
This is the story of John F. Kennedy.