JOHN F. KENNEDY
1961 - 1963
Arizona Timeline
1961 - Stewart Udall becomes first Arizonan to serve on Cabinet. He is the Secretary of Interior in the J. F. Kennedy administration.
1963 - Arizona wins Supreme Court decision in contest with California over share of Colorado River water. Arizona is awarded rights to 2,800,000 acre
feet of water a year from the Colorado River.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, of
Irish descent, was born in
Brookline, Massachusetts, on May
29, 1917. The first of our
presidents born in the 20th
Century. He graduated from
Harvard in 1940 and joined the
Navy in 1941. As skipper of a PT
boat, he survived a sinking and
also saved an enlisted man. He
wrote Profiles in Courage, which
won the Pulitzer Prize in history.
He was elected to Congress in
1946 and the Senate in 1952.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy
was born in 1929 and grew up in
New York City and Long Island.
She studied at Vassar and George
Washington University. While
working for a Washington, D. C.
Newspaper after graduation, she
met then Sen. Kennedy. They
were married in 1953. they had
two children, Caroline and John,
Jr. Two other children died in
infancy.
President John Kennedy was elected in 1961, the Nation's first Roman Catholic president. His Inaugural Address included the memorable: " Ask not
what your country can do for you-- ask what you can do for your country." He brought to the country the idea of a “ New Frontier” in dealing with world
and domestic problems, and the exploration of outer space. Kennedy established the Peace Corps, and he brought the country through the Cuban Missile
Crisis in 1962. In Dallas on November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald. The alleged assassin was killed two
days later, while he was in custody. This strange event left many questions about the murder of the President Kennedy unanswered.
Jacqueline Kennedy's public appearances as First Lady were successful, but limited. Her interest in the Arts was much publicized, and she devoted much
time and study to making the White House a museum of American history, as well as a family residence. She said her major role was to take care of the
president. She won the world's admiration for her courage during the tragedy of her husband's death. In 1968, she married Aristotle Onassis. She died in
New York City in 1994.
