How old was John F. Kennedy when he died and when did he marry Jackie Bouvier?
The 35th US President, who was born into a wealthy Irish American family, enjoyed a meteoric rise in the Democratic party before he was assassinated in 1963
PRESIDENT John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in 1963 in an assassination which shocked the world.
Let’s take a look at the youngest US leader in history.
How old was JFK when he died?
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was born on May 29, 1917, in Massachusetts.
He was assassinated 55 years ago, on June 6, 1968, when he was 46-years-old.
Who were his family?
His family were wealthy Irish-Americans while his father Joseph was a leading figure in the Democratic Party and served as US Ambassador to the UK.
John's mother Rose, whose dad was the mayor of Boston, had nine children - three of which had prominent careers in frontline politics.
JFK was educated at Harvard University graduating in 1940 before serving in the US navy during World War II.
Following the war, John entered politics in 1946 spurred on by his father Joseph and was elected to the US House of Representatives – the lower chamber of Congress.
He became a Democratic Senator in 1952.
His meteoric rise within the Democrats was cemented in 1960 when he won the party’s nomination for president.
John's youthful good looks and charisma ensured that he defeated Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the general election.
Aged 43, he became the youngest US President in history and first Catholic to hold the office.
His brother Robert and Edward, known as Ted, also had distinguished careers in US politics.
Ted served as a Senator from 1962 until his death in 2009 while Robert was Attorney General from 1961 until 1964.
Robert was tragically assassinated on June 6, 1968, during his primary campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
He was shot and killed by 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan who was motivated by Kennedy’s support for Israel.
When did Jackie Bouvier marry John?
Jackie Kennedy, formerly Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, married John on September 12, 1953.
The pair wed at St Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island, and they had 700 guests at the ceremony alone.
In the reception that followed, 1,200 guests made their way to Hammersmith Farm and the wedding was considered the social event of the season.
The newlyweds honeymooned in Acapulco, Mexico, before settling in, Hickory Hill, Virginia.
Jackie was First Lady of the United States from 1961-63 after her husband was elected as US President.
In later years it emerged that John had numerous affairs with other women while married to Jackie.
How many children did they have?
Together, the couple had four children; Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, Arabella Kennedy.
Patrick died when he was just two days old and Arabella was stillborn.
Jackie was in the car with her husband JFK in Dallas, Texas, when he was assassinated.
After his funeral, she and her children withdrew from public view and moved to New York City.
She married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1968 before she was widowed again in 1975.
Her son JFK Jr was killed in a place crash in 1999.
How long was JFK in the White House?
John was inaugurated on January 20, 1961, and was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
His time in office was dominated by America’s Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union.
He also introduced domestic reforms including expanding the civil rights of African Americans.
In April 1961, he launched the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba using anti-communist Cuban exiles.
Many historians believe that President Kennedy’s failure to overthrow Fidel Castro’s regime made him appear weak to the Soviets and prompted Moscow to install nuclear weapons in Cuba.
This sparked the infamous Cuban missile crisis which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Following a stand off which lasted nearly two weeks, Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev withdrew the atomic missiles from Cuba.
Who killed JFK?
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas as he travelled in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza.
Shortly after, Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old self-proclaimed Marxist, was arrested in a nearby cinema after police hunted a killer of one of their fellow officers.
He denied shooting anybody, claiming to reporters that he was a "patsy".
Later Oswald was accused of shooting the President dead with his $21 mail-order rifle from a window of the sixth floor of a nearby school textbook warehouse.
Two days after the assassination and his arrest, Oswald was being escorted from Dallas Police Headquarters to county prison.
As he was paraded in front of the world’s media, a man called Jack Ruby stepped forward and shot him dead.
Ruby, who had mob connections, was later found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
He appealed but died of an illness in jail in 1967 before his new trial could take place.
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The official probe into Kennedy's killing, known as the Warren Commission, reported in 1964 that Oswald had been the lone gunman.
Another congressional probe in 1979 found no evidence to support the theory that the CIA had been involved despite numerous conspiracy theories around the assassination.
Theories include a CIA plot, a mafia hit job and a covert operation by the vice president Lyndon Johnson.
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