May 29, 1917

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, great grandson of Irish immigrants, was born on Tuesday, May 29, 1917, at at his family’s home in Brookline, MA to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was named after his maternal grandfather John “Honeyfitz” Fitzgerald. Often ill as a child and given the last rites 5 times, the first when he was a newborn, he went on to Princeton and Harvard and joined the U.S. Navy in 1941. In the early 1950s he ran for Congress and was elected a Senator from Massachusetts in 1952. In 1960, he defeated Richard Nixon to become the 35th president of the U.S. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Texas. For more information on JFK visit the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.