“...if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it could happen.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Figure timeline
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president, at 43 years, and the first Catholic president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress before his presidency.
culture · President of the United States from 1961 to 1963 · politician · journalist · statesperson · writer · naval officer · anti-communist · also John F. Kennedy, Kennedy, President Kennedy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, JF Kennedy
Born 29 May 1917 · Died 22 November 1963 · Q9696
124 published statements · 0 followers
Updated 1 day agoSee & hear
Photos & media
14 photos · 5 audio
Listen
Discurso de Kennedy
JFK ColdWarsOrigin
JFK Establishment of the Peace Corps
JFKennedy November1963
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum · Public domain
Jfk American University 4654 06-10-63
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Unverified headlines, straight from trusted outlets’ feeds
Checking the wires…
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Connections
Related figures
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
- Quote
- Award
- Award
- Award
20269 items
“offensive weapons and associated materiel”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Vanity Fair España: La historia de John Kennedy Jr. y Carolyn Bessette: su carisma y belleza que aún tienen el poder de hacernos soñar escondían una realidad mucho más cruda, oscura y triste
- #news
- #headline
Univision: Reabren la preparatoria John F. Kennedy tras descartar riesgos por químicos en el subsuelo
- #news
- #headline
Fox News: EXCLUSIVE: Kennedy Center board moves to name grounds ‘President Donald J. Trump Plaza'
- #news
- #headline
Democracy Now!: La junta directiva del Centro John F. Kennedy para las Artes Escénicas ordena volver a colocar el nombre de Trump en la fachada de edificio, incumpliendo una orden judicial
- #news
- #headline
Snopes rated the claim “A screenshot authentically shows a July 2026 post by U.S. President Donald Trump in which he shared an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself standing in front of the White House with Mahatma Gandhi, former President John F. Kennedy and a person dressed like Jesus Christ.” Fake.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Lead Stories rated the claim “Real video shows the name "Donald J. Trump" being removed from "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts"” AI Takedown.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Reported claimRated There’s no evidence JFK said this. Media forensics experts say the video and audio were likely made using AI. · Full Fact
Full Fact rated the claim “A never-before-seen clip of John F. Kennedy shows him saying: “I have made it clear to the Israeli leadership that I do not support their expansionist ideas. The indigenous people of that land have rights that cannot be ignored. We must find a fair solution, not one dictated by any single group.”” There’s no evidence JFK said this. Media forensics experts say the video and audio were likely made using AI..
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
20254 items
Snopes rated the claim “A JFK assassination file declassified in March 2025 contained a letter in which John F. Kennedy Jr. called then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden a "traitor."” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Snopes rated the claim “A photo authentically shows a 1963 letter signed by former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, in which he wrote, "I have information that will lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton."” Fake.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
PolitiFact rated the claim “Files reveal that John F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a 1994 letter calling then-Sen. Joe Biden “a traitor” before Kennedy’s 1999 death.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
FACTLY rated the claim “US President Donald Trump ordered the release of the John F. Kennedy assassination video.” MISLEADING.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
20245 items
Snopes rated the claim “A photo authentically shows John F. Kennedy and his longtime friend Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings.” Miscaptioned.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
PolitiFact rated the claim “Donald Trump ordered the “Dallas Police Department and Dallas Attorney General’s Office to begin the preparation for the arrest” of a suspect in John F. Kennedy’s assassination.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Claimed: ““When John F. Kennedy was president, 6% of American kids had a chronic health condition. Today it is 60%."” — rated Unsupported by FactCheck.org.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-by-figure
USA Today rated the claim “Image shows John F. Kennedy Jr. attending 'debate'” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Snopes.com rated the claim “Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy wrote in a 1939 letter to his father, "Palestine was hardly Britain's to give away."” Correct Attribution.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
20031 item
“Europe's Anti-American Obsession”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
20021 item
In 2002, Robert Dallek wrote an extensive history of Kennedy's health based on a collection of Kennedy–associated papers from 1955 to 1963, including X-rays and prescription records from Travell.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #health
19671 item
The last day before expiration of the Act
- #wikipedia
- #event
19661 item
In 1966, White House physician Janet Travell disclosed that Kennedy also had hypothyroidism.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #health
19642 items
The guarantees Kennedy proposed in his June 1963 speech became federal law, when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act
- #wikipedia
- #event
Awarded Jane Addams Children's Book Award (1964).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
196320 items
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas
- #wikipedia
- #event
Died 1963-11-22.
- #wikidata
- #death
A junta of senior military officers executed the coup which led to the arrest and assassinations of Diem and Nhu on November 2
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy signed NSAM 263 ordering the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of the year following the third recommendation of the McNamara–Taylor mission report, which concluded that the training program for t
- #wikipedia
- #event
And Kennedy signed it on October 7, 1963
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy accepted a grant of armorial bearings from the Chief Herald of Ireland, received honorary degrees from the National University of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin, attended a State Dinner in Dublin, and was con
- #wikipedia
- #event
Won Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by Lyndon B. Johnson (1963).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Kennedy intervened when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to the University of Alabama to stop two Black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act and abolished wage disparity based on sex
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy, at the high point of his rhetorical powers, delivered the commencement address at American University
- #wikipedia
- #event
Congress passed the Community Mental Health Act, which provided funding to local mental health community centers and research facilities
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: Participated in commencement at the American University (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
“Dick Nixon is the victim of the worst press that ever hit a politician in this country. What they did to him in the Helen Gahagan Douglas race was disgusting.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
Kennedy signed the first nuclear weapons treaty
- #wikipedia
- #event
“Senators, we hear, must be politicians – and politicians must be concerned only with winning votes, not with statesmanship or courage. Mothers may still want their favorite sons to grow up to be President, but according to a famous Gallup poll of some years ago, they do not want them to become politicians in the process.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
“But the question is how we will compromise and with whom. For it is easy to seize upon unnecessary concessions, not as means of legitimately resolving conflicts but as methods of “going along.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
Germany was enduring a time of particular vulnerability due to Soviet aggression to the east as well as the impending retirement of West German Chancellor Adenauer
- #wikipedia
- #event
“Some of my colleagues who are criticized today for lack of forthright principles – or who are looked upon with scornful eyes as compromising “politicians” – are simply engaged in the fine art of conciliating, balancing and interpreting the forces and factions of public opinion, an art essential to keeping our nation united and enabling our Government to function.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“...we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the story of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.'”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
19628 items
Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, which prohibited racial discrimination in federally supported housing
- #wikipedia
- #event
CIA U-2 spy planes took photographs of the Soviets' construction of intermediate-range ballistic missile sites in Cuba
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy signed the United Nations bond issue bill to ensure U
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy signed into law a bill abolishing the mandatory death penalty for first degree murder in the District of Columbia, the only remaining jurisdiction in the United States with such a penalty
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy formally authorized escalated involvement when he signed the National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) – "Subversive Insurgency (War of Liberation)
- #wikipedia
- #event
The Kennedy administration sold Israel a major weapon system, the Hawk antiaircraft missile
- #wikipedia
- #event
And his first budget in 1961 resulted in the nation's first non-war, non-recession deficit
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy won approval of the Manpower Development and Training Act, a three-year program aimed at retraining workers displaced by new technology
- #wikipedia
- #event
196113 items
Awarded Grand Cross of the Order of the Orthodox Crusaders of the Holy Sepulchre (1961).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Time Person of the Year (1961).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Won Laetare Medal (1961).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Kennedy met with Khrushchev in Vienna and left the meeting angry and disappointed that he had allowed the premier to bully him, despite the warnings he had received
- #wikipedia
- #event
Eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers left Nicaragua to bomb Cuban airfields
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925, which required government contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race
- #wikipedia
- #event
Suggested international cooperation in space
- #wikipedia
- #event
By financing the South Vietnam army, increasing the number of U
- #wikipedia
- #event
Into late 1961, disagreements existed among Kennedy's doctors concerning the balance of medication and exercise.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #health
Kennedy prioritized passing five bills: federal assistance for education, medical insurance for the elderly, housing legislation, federal aid to struggling areas, and an increase in the federal minimum wage
- #wikipedia
- #event
His condition may have had diplomatic repercussions, as he was reportedly taking a combination of medications to manage the pain during the 1961 Vienna Summit.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #health
Career landmark: President of the United States (1961–1963).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Authorized attempts to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Mongoose
- #wikipedia
- #event
19603 items
Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: President-elect of the United States (1960–1961).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Dropped 10% shortly after the administration's action on the steel industry took place
- #wikipedia
- #event
19593 items
Kennedy co-sponsored the Cape Cod National Seashore bill with his Republican colleague Senator Leverett Saltonstall
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: United States senator (1959–1960).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Introduced a controversial bill to eliminate from the National Defense Education Act of 1958 a provision requiring loyalty oaths and affidavits from aid recipients
- #wikipedia
- #event
19581 item
Kennedy was re-elected to the Senate, defeating his Republican opponent, Boston lawyer Vincent J
- #wikipedia
- #event
19574 items
Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Profiles in Courage (1957).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1957).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Career landmark: United States senator (1957–1959).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Kennedy joined the Senate's Select Committee on Labor Rackets (also known as the McClellan Committee) with his brother Robert, who was chief counsel, to investigate racketeering in labor-management relations
- #wikipedia
- #event
19562 items
Published Profiles in Courage, a book about U
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy gained control of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, and delivered the state delegation to the party's presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II, at the Democratic National Convention in August
- #wikipedia
- #event
19551 item
Career landmark: United States senator (1955–1957).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
19542 items
When the Senate voted to condemn Joseph McCarthy for breaking Senate rules and abusing an Army general, Kennedy was the only Democrat not to cast a vote against him
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy voted in favor of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which would connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, despite opposition from Massachusetts politicians who argued that the project would hurt the Port of Boston e
- #wikipedia
- #event
19531 item
Career landmark: United States senator (1953–1955).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
19521 item
Against Republican three-term incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr
- #wikipedia
- #event
19511 item
Awarded Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity (1951).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
19501 item
Career landmark: Participated in commencement at the University of Notre Dame (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
19491 item
For contributing to the "tragic story of China whose freedom we once fought to preserve
- #wikipedia
- #event
19472 items
Career landmark: United States representative (1947–1953).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Years after Kennedy's death, it was revealed that in September 1947—at age 30 and during his first term in Congress—he was diagnosed by Sir Daniel Davis at The London Clinic with Addison's disease.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #health
19461 item
As a candidate for Massachusetts lieutenant governor, but Joe Sr
- #wikipedia
- #event
19455 items
Won American Defense Service Medal (1945).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Won Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1945).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Won American Campaign Medal (1945).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Won World War II Victory Medal (1945).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant
- #wikipedia
- #event
19442 items
Kennedy's older brother, Joseph Jr
- #wikipedia
- #event
Won Navy and Marine Corps Medal presented by Frederick L. Conklin in Chelsea Naval Hospital (1944).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
19431 item
Awarded Purple Heart presented by William Halsey Jr. in Chelsea Naval Hospital (1943).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
19413 items
And joined the ONI staff in Washington, D
- #wikipedia
- #event
With the help of Alan Goodrich Kirk—the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and former naval attaché to Joseph Sr
- #wikipedia
- #event
Studied at Stanford Graduate School of Business (1940–1941).
- #wikidata
- #education
19404 items
Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich", about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement
- #wikipedia
- #event
Studied at Harvard College, Bachelor of Arts (1936–1940).
- #wikidata
- #education
Kennedy attempted to enter the Army's Officer Candidate School
- #wikipedia
- #event
Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affairs
- #wikipedia
- #event
19362 items
He then spent the spring of 1936 working as a ranch hand outside Benson, Arizona under Jack Speiden.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #health
Studied at Princeton University (1935–1936).
- #wikidata
- #education
19351 item
Studied at Choate Rosemary Hall (1931–1935).
- #wikidata
- #education
19341 item
During his years at Choate, Kennedy was beset by health problems that culminated with his emergency hospitalization in 1934 at Yale New Haven Hospital, where doctors suspected leukemia.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #health
19311 item
Studied at Canterbury School (1930–1931).
- #wikidata
- #education
19271 item
Studied at Dexter School (1927).
- #wikidata
- #education
19222 items
When he toured Boston wards with his grandfather Fitzgerald during his unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign
- #wikipedia
- #event
Studied at Edward Devotion School (1922).
- #wikidata
- #education
19201 item
Three months prior to his third birthday, in 1920, Kennedy came down with scarlet fever, a highly contagious and life-threatening disease, and was admitted to Boston City Hospital.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #health
19172 items
Outside Boston in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Joseph P
- #wikipedia
- #event
Born 1917-05-29.
- #wikidata
- #birth
19009 items
Awarded Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Pacem in Terris Award.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Won James Cardinal Gibbons Medal.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Career landmark: Cuban Missile Crisis.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Studied at Noble and Greenough School.
- #wikidata
- #education
Career landmark: Cold War (1962–1979).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Vietnam War.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Studied at Riverdale Country School.
- #wikidata
- #education