John Fitzgerald Kennedy born on this day in 1917

[Zomby Woof]

35th President of the United States: January 20, 1961 - November 22, 1963

Some random trivia:

Kennedy was the first president born in the 20th century.

Kennedy is the only Roman Catholic to have served as president.

In 1964, the U.S. Mint memorialized Kennedy on the 50 cent coin - which is still issued every year. He is the most recent serving president honored on U.S. currency. This distinction will end in 2015 when President Lyndon Johnson will be honored on the $1 coin, as part of the U.S. Presidents Series being issued by the Mint.

Until Barack Obama's election as president in 2008, Kennedy had been the most recent sitting U.S. Senator to be elected president. President Obama is also the first president born during President Kennedy's term in office.

Kennedy was the first president inaugurated under the 50 star U.S. flag.

Kennedy was the first president to appoint a sibling to a cabinet post: his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy announced that the United States should commit itself to a manned moon landing before the end of the decade. Richard Nixon, Kennedy's rival during the 1960 presidential election, was president on July 20, 1969 when this goal was successfully achieved.

President Kennedy, at age 43, was the youngest person ever elected president (Theodore Roosevelt was 42 when he succeeded William McKinley, but was 46 when elected in his own right). Kennedy was also the youngest president to die in office, at age 46.





http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/05/21/kennedy_wideweb__470x408,0.jpg

Future President Bill Clinton meets President John Kennedy at the White House, July 25, 1963:

[firedupdem]

1. Rec'd...

his pictures always remind me of my childhood. There was always a picture of Dr. King and President Kennedy in someone's home.

[David Zephyr]

2. Happy Birthday, John.

Nice thread. Thanks.

If you are ever in Boston, please trek to Brookline and you can see the home where JFK was born.

[Captain Hilts]

3. He's pretty. Gave good speeches.

Regularly did a 19 year old intern in his office.

[SoxFan]

14. Stay classy, chuckles

Inspired millions of young people, including a Kansas teenager named Anne Dunham.

Secured ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Founded the Peace Corps

Strengthened the space program

Ended segregation at Ole Miss and the University of Alabama

Dramatically improved US relations with Latin America

[Captain Hilts]

17. I generally think he was a good president.

But I don't worship the guy.

[firedupdem]

15. cute. n/t

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HopeOverFear]

5. Where did you get THAT from??? that's awesome!

[Clio the Leo]

11. Google! Check out my theory.....

... and try it for yourself!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8437099&mesg_id=8437125

[Jennicut]

6. Interesting that we have only had two Catholics ever to be in the WH

as Prez and VP.
The pic of him and Bill was always awesome to me. Inspiration to a younger generation.

[RT Atlanta]

7. Lunar landing in '69

There's a story (and likely just that), that on the evening of July 20, 1969, a handwritten note was left beside the Eternal Flame on Kennedy's grave that simply read: "Mr. President, the Eagle has landed."

[TahitiNut]

8. JFK was the only President who had the honor of TahitiNut serving as his sideboy.

:silly:

That was a day in August of 1962 that I'll remember until I die. (I almost laughed in his ear.)

[Zomby Woof]

13. Are you sure you aren't Forrest Gump?

Did you drink a lot of Dr. Pepper too? :D

[TahitiNut]

16. Funny you say that. When I saw the movie for the first time, I almost felt like it was about me.

It was really uncanny ... parallel lives or something. I suppose most guys my age would feel a bit like that.

It wasn't so much the specifics as it was in the broad sweep of the times and the "up close and personal" events.

Eerie.

[Captain Hilts]

18. That's cool! A friend of mine as a boy scout flicked a bug off FDR's shoulder!

No kidding!

[TahitiNut]

26. When we have Real Life (wotta concept!) encounters with folks most only see on TV or ...

... in the newspapers (or news reels, in the case of FDR), it really puts one's feet on the ground and anchors one's perspective.

I've never been one to feel like I understood something tangible merely by reading about it or seeing it on the boob tube. History, civics, and geography were somewhat difficult for me in grade school where I didn't have a Real Life experience to anchor my comprehension.

I think this is particularly relevant in the current discussions regarding Judge Sotomayor's assets and what she'd bring to the SCOTUS. I found Turley's remarks to be particularly interesting from the Ivory Tower Academic perspective ... where the greatest regard is given to the ABSTRACTIONS in a SCOTUS opinion, rather than the visceral and tangible. It's what academics do. (I sometimes get this cartoonish picture in my mind where a hopelessly total academic is at a dinner in a French restaurant, taking notes and writing in his journal about the food and service - and eating the bag lunch in his briefcase.)

So much of life is like riding a bicycle -- or sex -- ya just gotta DO IT.

[gblady]

9. wow.....

I did not realize he was born in 1917.
That is the same year my father was born...
I always thought Kennedy was much younger than my Dad...
Maybe it's because he died so young.

[yellowcanine]

10. Single most tragic event for the U.S. in the last 50 years, imo.

If one considers the lost opportunities......
IMO if JFK had served 2 terms as President:

We would have pulled out of Vietnam by the end of 1965.

We likely would have a functioning National Health Care System originally signed into law by President Hubert Humphrey in 1969.

Richard Nixon would never have been elected President.

Ronald Reagan would never have been elected President.

George H.W. Bush would never have been elected President.

George W. Bush would never have been elected governor of Texas or President.

[Zomby Woof]

12. Your last point is already true

George W. Bush was never elected president.

[Captain Hilts]

19. Hard to draw those conclusions, but it certainly was a tragic event. I remember the day very welll.

I was a little kid on my dad's submarine in Groton, Conn. - before CT.

I think insurance companies would have fought healthcare then as they do now.

Instead of Humphrey you very likely could have had George Romney as president.

[bottomtheweaver]

20. He promised to shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces

and scatter them to the winds, but of course the American Nazis couldn't let that happen, so they killed him. If he'd succeeded in that single endeavor the entire PLANET would be a wholly different place in every conceivable way.

I've posted the article below a couple of times already, but it never ceases to astonish me that the US would invite 1,600 Nazi scientists -- including the torturers, plague-spreaders, and all the rest -- into a shadow government with virtually no oversight and unlimited powers.

"Operation Paperclip - A Fourth Reich?"
http://blogs.sundaymercury.net/thegrassyknoll/2009/03/operation-paperclip---a-fourth.html

Is it any wonder we've become a simulacrum of the Reich and that nothing changes from one administration to the next?!?

[bottomtheweaver]

21. A thousand days that set the world on an entirely new path.

1,034 days to be exact, by my calculation. He didn't get very far, and subsequent presidents have failed in every possibly way to keep the flame burning, but as he said in his inaugural, the torch has been passed, and one of these days we'll figure out a way to get to the destination he envisioned 48 years ago:

"We dare not forget today, that we are the heirs of that first revolution.

"Let the word go forth, from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. . . .

"So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof."



http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03Inaugural01201961.htm

Thanks for the reminder and the great pics! ~K/R~

[proud patriot]

22. also born on this day 40 years ago .... ME

:party:

[Zomby Woof]

24. Happy Birthday youngster!

:party: :toast:

[proud patriot]

28. Thanks

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it :hug: :bounce:

[Zomby Woof]

30. Here are 2 ways

1. You are alive and have your health. :-)

2. You are younger than I am, so you have to forfeit your misgivings, lol. I am in my 40's too, but am thinking when I am in my 60's, I will look back on now and wish I was this young again. :D

:toast: :bounce: :hug:

[Neecy]

25. Happy 40th!!!

[proud patriot]

29. Thank you

:hi:

[bottomtheweaver]

31. hey congrats!

The best is yet ahead! :toast:

[Born_A_Truman]

32. My father as well

He would have been 90 today.

[struggle4progress]

23. "When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad

as we'd been saying they were."

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Education+and+Public+Programs/Profile+in+Courage+Award/Award+Recipients/Shirley+Franklin/Franklin+Acceptance+Speech.htm

[Carolina]

27. Thanks for the memories

I remember 1960 as if it were yesterday and JFK is still my hero. Where did the time go... along with our innocence and our sense that anything was possible in the new frontier?

Thanks for this post! :hi::hi::hi::hi: