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JFK Events
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"New Frontier" Speech
- Intended to boost the economy, provide international aid, provide for national defense, and boost the space program. -Control monopoly prices- made him unpopular with big companies. -Increased minimum wage from $1.00 to $1.25
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Houston Ministers' Conference
-States he is not a Catholic candidate for president but rather a Democrat candidate who also happens to be Catholic.
- States he does not apologize for his views
- States if he wins election he will devote all of his efforts in mind and spirit to fulfilling the oath of the presidency -
JFK debates Richard Nixon on televison
-First televised Presidential debate
-Credited with erasing Nixon's lead over Kennedy
Kennedy won election in November of that year -
JFK wins election in 1960
-One of the closest elections in American history.
-Youngest person ever to be elected president
-Pledged a solid commitment to separate Church and State -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
-1300 Cuban exiles armed with US weapons landed in the Bay of Pigs
-Invasion was stopped by Fidel Castro's army
-Killed 90 and took the rest prisoner -
Freedom Riders Attacked in Alabama
-200 angry people stoned the bus and slashed the tires
-Second bus was attacked and beaten
-Police did not arrive until well after the beatings even thought they were only two blocks away -
Berlin Wall is Constructed
-Desperate move by the German Democratic Republic to stop East Berliners from escaping the Soviet- controlled east German state into the west of the city.
-Focal point of tension becuase the city was half owned by Allies and the other half to the Soviets
-Within a day the East was completely sealed off from the West -
Cuban Missile Crisis
-Kennedy informed U.S. of the existence of Soviet missile sites in Cuba and of his plans to remove them.
- For the next six days the world faced the possibility of a nuclear war
-The first break in the crisis occured when the Soviet ships stopped suddenly to avoid a confrontation at sea. -
Kennedy Addresses the Nation about Civil Rights
-Marked the first time that a president called on Americans to recognize civil rights as a lofty moral cause to which all persons should contribute, so that the nation might fully end discrimination against and provide equal treatments to African Americans
-Refered to the Emancipation Proclamation
-Emerged as an ally of the Civil Rights movement -
JFK Assassinated in Dallas, Texas
-Riding in a motorcycle through Dealey Plaza in Dallas
-Died soon after he was shot
-Buried in Arlington National Cemetary three days later
-Lyndon Johnson swore oath on the way back to D.C. and succeeded Kennedy
