John F. Kennedy

Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, he graduated Harvard in 1940 and commanded PT boats in the Pacific during World War II - surviving the sinking of PT-109 made him a war hero but left him with lasting injuries. After a brief turn in journalism, he represented a working-class Boston district in the House from 1947 to 1953, then served as Massachusetts junior senator until 1960, publishing Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer. His 1960 campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he narrowly defeated Richard Nixon to become the 35th president at 43. His presidency navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, when Soviet missiles in Cuba nearly triggered nuclear war, authorized the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, increased military advisers in South Vietnam, signed the first nuclear weapons treaty, and launched the Peace Corps and the Apollo moon program. On November 22, 1963, he was assassinated in Dallas - Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested, then killed two days later by Jack Ruby, leaving conspiracy theories that never settled.