50 Years Later

11/08/10 - posted by Frank Dunnigan

It's hard to believe that a full half-century has now passed since the day that John F. Kennedy was elected President. Although everyone born in the mid-1950s and earlier still remembers the details about hearing the news of the assassination, it's a bit harder to remember Election Night, 1960--a real cliff-hanger that was not decided until the following morning. There were so many firsts to his election--the first Catholic, the first born in the 20th Century, the first televised debates, the first to use television as a prime advertising medium, youngest elected, youngest wife at the time of her husband's election, and first baby to be born to a sitting President and First Lady in the 20th Century--P. Rose, correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, and help me fill in any missing "firsts".

Whoever could have imagined the twists and turns of fate that would befall that family and the nation over the next 50 years...And who was it who said, "The veil that hides our view of the future was woven by the hand of Mercy"?