The Basic Facts, J.F.K

The Basic Facts, J.F.K

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917.   He was born in Brookline, MA to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald.   Kennedy lived in Brookline for the first ten years on his life then in Sept. 1927 he and his family moved to a 20-room mansion in Riverdale, NY.   Two years later he moved to a 21-room mansion in Bronxville, NY.   Throughout this time and the years to come Kennedy attended many different schools.  

IN 8th grade Kennedy was sent fifty miles away to Canterbury School, a catholic boarding school for boys, in New Milford, Conn.   In 1931 he had to get a tonsillectomy cause of his infected tonsils.   He then withdrew from Canterbury School, so that he could recover at home.   When September 1931 came around he was sent 60 miles to Choate School, a private school for the elite.   He went there 9th grade through 12th grade.   It was the same school his brother Joe was going to, but Joe was two years older.   During his junior year he became very ill and was hospitalized in Yale-New Haven Hospital.   During this time he lost a lot of weight.   He finally graduated from Choate in 1935  

After graduating from Choate he decided to go to Harvard.   Throughout his years in college he succeeded in spite of the fact that he was often taking trips with his father and brother.   In fact he graduated cum laude with a degree in International Relationships.   For those of you who don’t know, cum laude is the Latin phrase for graduating with honor.   There are other forms of higher praise such as magna cum laude, summa cum laude and the rarely used egregia cum laude.

In 1941 Kennedy volunteered for the army but they rejected him because of his back, but nevertheless he joined the navy that same year.   On August 2, 1943 Kennedy's boat, the PT-109 was rammed by a Japanese boat.   Kennedy was thrown across the deck which hurt his back even more, but he still managed to tow an injured man 3 miles to an island. For this huge event which changed Kennedy’s life, he...