Civic Calendar: Remembering John F. Kennedy

The Forty-Ninth State Fellows of the UAA Honors College call the attention of the University community to the anniversary of the birth of John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, born May 29, 1917 to a wealthy Massachusetts family.

Kennedy graduated from Harvard College in 1940 and entered the U.S. Navy in September 1941, serving in the South Pacific and earning the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism while captain of a patrol (torpedo) boat. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1947 and the U.S. Senate in 1953. The first Catholic elected as a U.S. president, Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1960 in one of the closest U.S. elections. He was president during the Cuban missile crisis and the early years of the civil rights revolution.

Kennedy was assassinated November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Perhaps best remembered for the phrase in his inaugural address, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," Kennedy's legacy includes advocacy of civil rights for minorities and aggressive anti-Communist leadership abroad.