John Fitzgerald
"Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), commonly
known by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from
January 1961 until he was assassinated in
November 1963.
After military service
as commander of Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World
War II in the South Pacific,
Kennedy represented Massachusetts's
11th congressional district in the U.S. House of
Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat.
Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953
until 1960. Kennedy defeated vice president and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S.
presidential election. At age 43, he was the youngest to have been
elected to the office, the second-youngest president (after Theodore Roosevelt), and
the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president. To date,
Kennedy has been the only Roman Catholic president and the only president to have
won a Pulitzer Prize.