John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. After graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote PROFILES IN COURAGE, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history. In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II.
John F. Kennedy