John F. Kennedy

Thirty-fifth president of the United States

On Inauguration Day 1961, John F. Kennedy became the youngest president—and the first Roman Catholic—ever elected to the presidency. His address to the nation, delivered while wearing a morning coat on a frigid day, was eloquent, authoritative, and high-minded. It was indicative of the man himself and ushered in a new era of vigorous leadership. The country was entranced by his charisma, his stylish wife, Jackie, and their two small children—the first young family to live in the White House since Theodore Roosevelt sixty years before. Kennedy’s agenda promised new opportunities in an age of accelerating challenges. Yet his initiatives and reforms for containing the Cold War, increasing civil rights, and exploring space never came to fruition during his presidency, which was curtailed by an assassin’s bullet. Still, his legacy lived on in such programs as the Peace Corps and space exploration when, in 1969, Americans walked on the moon.