History

2022

November 2023

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U.S. Census Bureau History: John F. Kennedy

Democrat John F. Kennedy was elected the 35th President of the United States
on November 8, 1960, defeating Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon.

On a November 22, 1963, visit to Dallas, TX, President Kennedy was shot and
killed by Lee Harvey Oswald as he drove through the city greeting supporters.

Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Sixty years ago this month, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin in Dallas, TX. Kennedy was in Dallas on November 22, 1963, to deliver a speech during a five-city Texas trip. Enthusiastic crowds lined the streets to greet President Kennedy and First-Lady Jacqueline as their motorcade drove through Dallas. At approximately 12:30, shots rang out as the presidential limousine drove through Dealey Plaza. President Kennedy was mortally wounded and Texas Governor John Connally—who was sitting in front of the president—was seriously injured. The president's Secret Service driver sped toward Parkland Memorial Hospital. One hour later, the world mourned the loss of the popular and energetic 35th president of the United States.

John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, MA, on May 29, 1917. He was the second oldest child of Rose Fitzgerald and Joseph P. Kennedy, a prominent businessman and politician. Kennedy attended boarding school in Wallingford, CT. After graduating in 1935, he briefly enrolled at Princeton University until health concerns forced him to withdraw. The following year, he enrolled at Harvard University where he received a bachelor of arts degree in government, with an international affairs concentration in 1940.

Anticipating that the United States would soon enter World War II, Kennedy joined the United States Naval Reserve and was commissioned an ensign on October 26, 1941. Initially assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence, he transferred to patrol torpedo (PT) boat training in Charleston, SC, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, HI. He received command of a PT boat at the Panama Canal in December 1942, and was reassigned to command PT-109 in the South Pacific. On August 2, 1943, Kennedy was in command of PT-109 when the Japanese destroyer Amagiri sliced the PT boat in half. Two of the PT boat's crew died, but Kennedy's actions helped save several injured men, earning him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.

Kennedy patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. intended that his oldest son Joseph Kennedy Jr. would become a politician. When Joseph Jr., died during the war, his father shifted his political aspirations to his second eldest son John. In 1946, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. persuaded James Curley to vacate his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to become the mayor of Boston, MA. Curley's departure from the House of Representatives allowed John F. Kennedy to campaign for and win the Massachusetts 11th congressional district seat. Six years later, Kennedy campaigned for a U.S. Senate seat against Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. With his father's financial assistance and his younger brother Robert F. Kennedy working as campaign manager, John F. Kennedy defeated Lodge in the 1952 election by 70,737 votes.

In January 1960, Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Despite strong support for challengers Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, and Adlai Stevenson II, Kennedy won the nomination after brokering an agreement that named Johnson his vice presidential running mate. Following the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Kennedy and Republican nominee, Vice President of the United States Richard M. Nixon faced off in four televised presidential debates. The debates allowed voters to compare an uncomfortable, but politically savvy Nixon against the handsome and confident Kennedy. On November 8, 1960, voters narrowly elected John F. Kennedy as the 35th President of the United States by 112,827 popular votes. Kennedy won the electoral college vote 303 to 219.

Between January 1961 and November 1963, Kennedy's presidency witnessed a number of major events in American history, including: the failed Bay of Pigs invasion meant to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro; escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam; early successes in the American space program; construction of the Berlin Wall separating East and West Germany; school desegregation; the Cuban Missile Crisis; and the Civil Rights Movement's "March on Washington." Despite his administration's foreign and domestic challenges, Kennedy remained a popular president, with approval ratings ranging from 82 percent in spring 1961 to 58 percent shortly before arriving in Texas on November 21, 1963.

Kennedy's 5-city tour of Texas included stops in San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth on November 21, followed by engagements in Dallas, and Austin, TX, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy anticipated that the trip would raise a substantial amount of money for the Democratic Party, launch his 1964 re-election campaign, and help soothe tension between liberal and conservative factions of the Texas Democratic Party. Kennedy's trip began with a speech in San Antonio at Brooks Air Force Base, followed by a visit to the League of United Latin American Citizens in Houston, TX. Arriving in Fort Worth that evening, Kennedy was greeted by cheering crowds as he drove from the airport to his hotel. Following a speech to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce on the morning of November 22, Kennedy flew to Dallas for a lunch and speech at the Dallas Trade Mart.

Shortly before noon, the president's motorcade left the Dallas, TX, Love Field airport for the Trade Mart luncheon. Sharing the presidential limousine were two Secret Service agents, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie, and President John F. Kennedy and wife Jacqueline. Included in the motorcade's trailing vehicles were the vice presidential car carrying Lyndon B. Johnson and wife Lady Bird; Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell's car with his wife Elizabeth and Texas congressman Herbert Ray Roberts; National press cars carrying reporters and White House assistant press secretary Malcolm Kilduff; camera cars; Texas congressional delegation cars; a dignitary car; Secret Service cars and motorcycle escorts; and two buses carrying reporters, the White House Signal Corps, military personnel carrying the presidential nuclear codes, and the president's physician.

Cheering crowds greeted the president as his motorcade drove through downtown Dallas, stopping twice so the president could shake hands and speak to supporters lining the street. As the motorcade entered Dealey Plaza, assassin Lee Harvey Oswald took aim from a sixth floor window of the Texas Book Depository building. Bullets struck President Kennedy in the neck and head. Governor Connally was wounded in the chest, wrist, and leg. The presidential limousine sped away from Dealey Plaza and arrived at Parkland Memorial Hospital approximately 8 minutes later. At 1:33 pm, assistant White House Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff officially announced that President Kennedy died at 1:00 pm from gunshot wounds. Five minutes later, CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite made an emotional announcement to television viewers, "From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED AT 1 P.M. (CST), 2:00 Eastern Time, some thirty eight minutes ago." Kennedy's body was taken back to Washington, DC, aboard Air Force One. Shortly before departing, federal judge Sarah Tilghman Hughes administered the oath of office to Lyndon B. Johnson.

Kennedy lay in repose in the White House for 24 hours, before lying in state at the U.S. Capitol building where 250,000 mourners filed past the president's casket to pay their respects. More than 1,200 people and dignitaries from 92 countries attended Kennedy's November 25 funeral service at St. Mathews Cathedral in Washington, DC. One million lined the street as the horse-drawn caisson bearing Kennedy's body traveled from the U.S. Capitol to St. Mathews Cathedral, and finally internment at Arlington National Cemetery. An estimated 180 million people worldwide watched the procession and funeral on television. Sixty years since his death, millions of people still visit Kennedy's grave and its "eternal flame" as well as the nearby graves of First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy, and brothers Joseph P., Robert F., and Edward Kennedy.

You can learn more about the life and presidency of John F. Kennedy using census data and records. For example:

• John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, MA, on May 29, 1917. Incorporated in 1705, the town in Norfolk County, MA, had a population of 484 at the time of our nation's first census in 1790. Three years after Kennedy's birth, the 1920 Census counted 37,748 living in the town. When Kennedy became the 35th president of the United States in 1960, Brookline was home to 54,044 people. Today, Brookline, MA, is home to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site and a population estimated at 62,535.
• John F. Kennedy attended Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, and graduated cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in government and international affairs concentration in 1940. Seven other presidents of the United States have attended Harvard University including: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama. Vice presidential alumni include John Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Theodore Roosevelt, and Al Gore. Other notable civil servants who attended Harvard University include 22 U.S. Supreme Count Justices such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and John Roberts; dozens of cabinet secretaries (including Secretary of Labor Dean Acheson, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, and Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson); leaders of foreign governments (including the president of Mexico Felipe Calderon; the president of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj; the president of Columbia Alvaro Uribe, and the president of South Korean Syngman Rhee), and hundreds of U.S. senators, representatives, and state governors.
• After being commissioned an ensign on October 26, 1941, John F. Kennedy worked at the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, DC, and later in a field office in Charleston, SC. Today, the Office of Naval Intelligence is headquartered adjacent to the U.S. Census Bureau at the Suitland Federal Center in Suitland, MD.
• Seven U.S. presidents served in World War II, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. These presidents were among approximately 16.1 million veterans of World War II. In 2022, the American Community Survey estimated that there were just 131,423 World War II veterans remaining. More than 5.4 million Vietnam-era veterans are still living in the United States, followed by Gulf War (September 2001 or later) veterans (4.3 million), Gulf War (August 1990 to August 2001) veterans (4 million), and Korean War veterans (664,177). There are no surviving veterans of World War I or earlier wars.
• The last surviving World War I (1917–1918) veteran was Frank W. Buckles, who died at the age of 110 on February 27, 2011.
• Spanish-American War (1898–1902) veteran Nathan E. Cook died on September 10, 1992, at the age of 106.
• Civil War (1861–1865) Union Army veteran Albert Woolson was aged 109 when he died August 2, 1956, outliving last Confederate veteran Pleasant Crump, who died at the age of 104 on December 21, 1951.
• Mexican War (1846–1848) veteran Owen Thomas Edgar died September 3, 1929, at the age of 98.
• Fredrak W. Fraske was the last survivor of the Indian Wars (1817–1898) when he died on June 18, 1973, aged 101.
• Hiram Cronk was the last surviving War of 1812 (1812–1815) veteran when he died on May 13, 1905, aged 105.
• Daniel F. Bakeman survived the American Revolution (1775–1783) and lived to the age of 109. He died on April 5, 1869.
• John F. Kennedy's first elected office was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (1947–1953) representing the now obsolete 11th congressional district of Massachusetts that included sections of Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. Massachusetts 11th congressional district was representative by a number of notable politicians, including Manasseh Cutler (1801–1803), who helped draft the Northwest Ordinance of 1787; Jonathan Russell, who later negotiated the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812; President John Quincy Adams; Henry L. Dawes, whose General Allotment Act of 1887 ("Dawes Act") had long-lasting consequences for American Indian and Alaska Native land ownership, sovereignty, and culture; James Curley, who also served four separate terms as Boston's mayor and one term as Massachusetts governor; and Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, Jr., who represented the district from 1953 to 1987 and served as the 47th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987.
• Kennedy was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952, representing Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960. Other notable senators from Massachusetts include President John Quincy Adams; politician and constitutional lawyer Daniel Webster; prominent abolitionist Charles Sumner; outspoken critic of the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I and League of Nations Henry Cabot Lodge; Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., who also served as U.S. Ambassador to West Germany, South Vietnam, and the United Nations; John F. Kennedy's brother Edward "Ted" Kennedy; and Sinclair Weeks, who was later the Secretary of Commerce responsible for establishing the Watkins Commission and approving ongoing funding for the Census Bureau's economic censuses.
• When Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy faced Republican Richard M. Nixon in the 1960 presidential plection, U.S. citizens had to be 21 years of age to vote. In 1960, the nation's voting age population was approximately 108.5 million. More than 68.8 million (63.5 percent) of that population cast their vote in the election, giving John F. Kennedy a very narrow 113,000 popular vote victory over Nixon. Nixon won the states of Idaho and Utah, which had the highest voter turnout in the nation with 80.7 percent and 80.1 percent, respectively, of the voting age population casting ballots. Kennedy won the states of Georgia and South Carolina where just 30.4 percent and 30.5 percent of voters cast ballots in 1960.
• In the 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy (D) and Richard M. Nixon (R), Kennedy won the popular vote by just .17 percent. Nixon won 26 states compared to Kennedy's 22-state win, but Kennedy prevailed with 303 electoral votes. Several other presidential elections have been decided by a very small number of popular and/or electoral votes and sometimes the popular vote winner does not always become president. For example, the 1876 presidential election was even closer than the election in 1960. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J. Tilden by 3 percent, but Hayes defeated Tilden by a single electoral vote to become president. More recently, Democratic candidate Al Gore lost the 2000 presidential election to Republican George W. Bush despite winning the popular vote by approximately 530,000 votes. In 2016, Republican Donald Trump won the electoral vote and presidency, but Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by approximately 2.8 million.
• During the 1960 presidential election, John F. Kennedy beat Republican Richard M. Nixon with a decisive 303 to 219 electoral college victory. Three other presidential candidates earned electoral votes during the 1960 presidential election. Democratic Segregationist ("Dixiecrat") Harry F. Byrd and vice presidential running mate Strom Thurmond received 14 electoral votes from electors in Alabama, Mississippi. A single Oklahoma elector voted for Republican Barry Goldwater. Several other candidates—including Eric Hass (Socialist Labor), Rutherford Losey Decker (Prohibition), Orval Eugene Faubus (States' Rights), Farrell Dobbs (Socialist Workers), Charles L. Sullivan (Constitution), and Joseph Bracken Lee (Conservative)—received approximately 217,000 popular votes, but no electoral college support.
• John F. Kennedy is the only U.S. president to win a Pulitzer Prize. Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer established the award for outstanding achievements in journalism and literature. Kennedy won the 1957 biography award for his book Profiles in Courage. The book contains the biographies of eight senators who displayed noteworthy but often overlook acts of bravery and integrity including: John Quincy Adams for breaking from the Federalist to join the Whig Party; Daniel Webster for his support of the Compromise of 1850; Thomas Hart Benton who remained a loyal Democrat despite disagreements over their pro-slavery stance; Sam Houston for his opposition to the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act; Edmund G. Ross for voting to acquit Andrew Johnson of his impeachment charges; Lucius Lamar for his attempts to mend the relationship between the North and South following the Civil War; George Norris for his support of Alfred Smith—the first Catholic nominated as a major political party presidential candidate; and Robert A. Taft for his criticism of trying Nazi war criminals ex post facto at the Nuremberg Trials.
• President John F. Kennedy made television history when he hosted the first live broadcast of a White House press conference. The event took place on January 25, 1961, from an auditorium at the U.S. State Department building in Washington, DC. During the televised news conference, Kennedy discussed planning to negotiate a nuclear test ban and famine relief to the Congo. The president also announced that the Soviet Union would release Captains John R. McKone and Freeman "Bruce" Olmstead who had been crew members of a Strategic Air Command bomber shot down in international airspace over the Arctic on July 1, 1960—just 2 months after the Soviets shot down and captured U-2 surveillance airplane pilot Francis Gary Powers on May 1, 1960. The other four crew members of the RB-47H bomber who died in the July 1 incident were Captains Oscar Goforth, Dean Phillips, Eugene Posa, and Major Willard Palm.
• In a May 25, 1961, speech before a Joint Session of Congress, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to land an American on the moon before the end of the 1960s. The speech shocked many observers because astronaut Alan Shepard had become the first American to make a sub-orbital flight to space just 3 weeks earlier. Despite initially lagging behind the Soviet Union's space program and suffering the tragic loss of astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White, and Roger B. Chaffee in a 1967 fire, the United States met Kennedy's challenge. On July 20, 1969, the world collectively held its breath as Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon. Learn more about the race to the moon and the Kennedy Space Center—named for the president 1 week after his death (Executive Order 11129)—at our Apollo 11 and the First Man on the Moon webpage.
• Did you know that President John F. Kennedy was at the center of a disagreement that ended the friendship between "Rat Pack" entertainers Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford. During a 1962 visit to California, President Kennedy had agreed to stay at Sinatra's home. However, soon after making the arrangements, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy urged his brother to cancel his plans. Robert Kennedy believed Sinatra was too closely associated with Las Vegas, NV, mobsters like "Bugsy" Siegel, Sam Giancano, and Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Sinatra asked Lawford—President Kennedy's brother-in-law—to intervene, but he refused, ending a personal and professional relationship that began in 1947.
• Within minutes of shooting President John F. Kennedy and Governor John Connally, assassin Lee Harvey Oswald calmly exited the Texas Book Depository. He briefly stopped at his house, before witnesses saw him shoot and kill Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit at 1:15 pm. He was arrested inside the Texas Theatre at about 1:50. Dallas police first charged Oswald with Officer Tippit's murder and then the murder of President Kennedy later that evening. At 11:21 am on November 24, police detective Jim Leavelle was escorting Oswald to a waiting armored car to transfer him from Dallas police headquarters to the county jail. Suddenly, nightclub owner Jack Ruby jumped from the crowd and shot Oswald in the abdomen. Oswald was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital where he died at 1:07 pm. Ruby was found guilty and sentenced to death for Oswald's murder on March 14, 1964. He successfully appealed the conviction, but died—at Parkland Memorial Hospital—on January 3, 1967, before a new trial could begin.
• In addition to appearing on the half-dollar coin since 1964, hundreds of schools, parks, public buildings, navy ships, and airports have been named in honor of John F. Kennedy including the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA; John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, MD; John F. Kennedy Middle School in Port Jefferson Station, NY; John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Sioux Falls, SD; the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston, MA; the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (the "Kennedy Center") in Washington, DC; JFK Stadium in Springfield, MO; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL; John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, NY; John F. Kennedy Memorial bridge spanning the Ohio River between Louisville, KY, and Jeffersonville, IN; Kennedy Plaza in Providence, RI; the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79); and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, MA.

Following his assassination on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on November 25, 1963. He joined the only other
U.S. president buried at the cemetery—William H. Taft.

His gravesite features an "eternal" flame which rests alongside former first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, and his brothers Joseph P. (memorial marker), Robert F, and Edward M. Kennedy.

Photo courtesy of Arlington National Cemetery.

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Presidential Data and Records

Want to use census data and records to learn more about the Presidents of the United States?

Visit our First Ladies and Election Surprises webpages as well as pages dedicated to Presidents Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Ronald Reagan, and Theodore Roosevelt. Also view individual census records available from the National Archives at our Famous and Infamous Census Records webpage.

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Texans

James K. Polk won the 1844 presidential election against Henry Clay after vowing to annex the Republic of Texas to the United States.

Polk signed legislation making Texas the nation's 28th state on December 29, 1845.

Five years later, the 1850 Census counted 212,592 people living in Texas, including 154,034 White, 397 Free Colored, and 58,161 enslaved inhabitants.

The state's most populous cities in 1850 were Galveston (3,469), San Antonio (3,252), and Houston (1,863).

Between 1860 and 1880, the population of Texas grew from 604,215 to 1,591,749. It reached nearly 3.9 million in 1910 and 6.4 million by 1940.

In 1960, the census identified Houston, TX, as the nation's seventh largest city with a population of 938,219.

By 1970, Dallas, TX, (844,401) joined Houston among the ten largest cities in the United States.

With more than 14.2 million people, Texas was the nation's third most populous state in 1980. Twenty years later, the "Lone Star State" (20.8 million) was the nation's second most populous behind California (33.9 million).

The 2020 Census counted 29,145,505 people living in Texas. The state boasts 3 of the 10 most populous cities in the United States: "Space City" Houston (2,304,580); "Alamo City" San Antonio (1,434,625); and "Big D" Dallas, TX (1,304,379).

Famous and infamous Texas natives include Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson; Admiral Chester Nimitz; baseball Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks; musicians Janis Joplin and "Buddy" Holly; gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow; actress Debbie Reynolds; and champion athlete Babe Didrickson Zaharias.

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For the Record

The United States mourned the loss of three presidents to assassins between 1865 and 1901.

On April 14, 1865, just 5 days days after general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln as he watched a play at Ford's Theater. Gravely wounded, Lincoln succumbed to his wounds the next morning.

James Garfield had been president just 4 months when Charles J. Guiteau shot him in a Washington, DC, train station on July 2, 1881. Garfield survived the initial wound, but died from blood poisoning after an agonizing 79 days in which doctors probed the president's wound with unsterile fingers and instruments.

William McKinley was the third president to be assassinated in less than 4 decades when he was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, NY, on September 6, 1901. The president died 8 days later from gangrene infection.

Assailants severely wounded Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, but both survived.

Roosevelt was shot in the chest during his 1912 presidential election campaign in Milwaukee, WI, on October 14, 1912. He refused medical attention until he delivered a speech in which he told the stunned crowd, "It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

Reagan suffered a more serious wound after being shot in Washington, DC, on March 30, 1981. Luckily the bullet missed Reagan's heart by an inch. He recovered and was released from the hospital 12 days later.

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Visit https://www.census.gov/history every month for the latest Census History Home Page!