JFK served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.

In the 1960 presidential election, Kennedy narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon, who was the incumbent Vice President.

Lyndon B. Johnson served as the 37th Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963.

All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day (October 16-28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.

Kennedy suffered from poor health his entire life and, fearing imminent death, America's first Catholic president received the sacramental last rites of the church on three occasions. On a trip to England in 1947, Kennedy fell ill and was given perhaps a year to live after being diagnosed with Addison's disease, a rare disorder of the adrenal glands. Returning to America aboard the Queen Mary, Kennedy was so ill that a priest was summoned to administer last rites. He received the sacrament again in 1951 after suffering from an extremely high fever while traveling in Asia and in 1954 after he slipped into a coma from an infection after surgery to address his chronic back problems.

During World War II, Kennedy commanded a series of PT boats (Patrol Torpedo boats) in the Pacific theater and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his service.

His full name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Bouvier and Kennedy were married on September 12, 1953, at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The wedding was considered the social event of the season with an estimated 700 guests at the ceremony and 1,200 at the reception that followed at Hammersmith Farm.

On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.