Key dates in the election and presidency of John F. Kennedy

1941 
Kennedy serves in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during World War II and is discharged in 1945.

1946 
Kennedy is elected to his first term in the House of Representatives.

1952 
Kennedy is elected to the United States Senate. 

1953 
Kennedy marries Jacqueline Bouvier.

1960 
Kennedy wins the Democratic nomination for president and picks Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate. In November, Kennedy defeats Nixon and becomes president.

1961 
Attempted U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba ends in disaster at the Bay of Pigs.

1962 
October 22 — The U.S. obtains photos of Soviet missile emplacements in Cuba, bringing about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy announces naval quarantine of Cuba. 

October 28 — Soviet Union agrees to remove its missiles from Cuba.

1963 
August — The U.S. and Soviet Union agree to a nuclear test-ban treaty.

1963 
Ngo Dinh Diem, president of South Vietnam, is assassinated by his own army. The U.S. supported the overthrow, replacing the government with a military dictatorship.

1963 
November 22 — Kennedy is assassinated while riding through the streets of Dallas, Texas. Lyndon Johnson becomes president.