John Kennedy

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-63), 35th president of the United States (1961-63).

Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917, the second son of financier Joseph P. Kennedy, who served as ambassador to Great Britain during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He graduated from Harvard University in 1940, winning note with the publication of Why England Slept, an expansion of his senior thesis on Britain's lack of preparedness for World War II. His own part in the war was distinguished by bravery. In August 1943, as commander of the U.S. Navy torpedo boat PT-109, he rescued several crewmen after the boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands.

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