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Timeline of the John F. Kennedy presidency (1961)

The following is a timeline of the presidency of John F. Kennedy from his inauguration as the 35th president of the United States on January 20, 1961, to December 31, 1961.

January edit

 
January 20:John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States.
  • January 20 – John F. Kennedy's presidency begins with his inauguration at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C; the oath of office is administered by Chief Justice Earl Warren. President Kennedy delivers a widely praised inaugural address, asking Americans to "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" and for the people of the world to "ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man".[1][2] He is congratulated by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Kennedy also formally nominates his cabinet and attends the inaugural balls.
 
January 21:The Cabinet is sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren.

February edit

March edit

April edit

  • April 1 – President Kennedy meets with Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Kennedy also declares parts of eastern Iowa flooded by the Cedar River to be a major disaster area.
  • April 2 – President Kennedy meets with journalists Albert Merriman Smith and Marvin Arrowsmith. The First Family view the film All in a Night's Work.
  • April 12 – The Soviet Union's launch of Yuri Gagarin into low Earth orbit aboard Vostok 1 marks the first time a human being is launched into outer space. Kennedy messages Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, congratulating him on the successful launch of Vostok 1.
  • April 17 – Continuing a concept originating in the Eisenhower Administration, President Kennedy approves the invasion of Cuba in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the communist regime.
  • April 18 - Around midnight in the middle of the battle, the CIA and the military chiefs met President Kennedy in the Oval Office to urge him to use marines and air power to save the invaders. Navy Chief Admiral Arleigh Burke had already two battalions off the shore of Cuba on destroyers, without any presidential authorization and "he was especially gruff with Kennedy, treating him as if he were a weak-kneed ensign...Let me take two jets and shoot down the enemy aircraft. Kennedy stood his ground. "Burke, I don't want the United States involved in this." The CIA had told him the invasion would work without overt power.[6]
  • April 19 – The invasion of Cuba fails and results in a Cuban revolutionary victory. Kennedy's administration is severely embarrassed, so much so that Kennedy stated he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind."

May edit

 
May 5: President Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, and Vice President Johnson watch the launch of Freedom 7 from the office of his secretary, Evelyn Lincoln
 
May 25: Kennedy lays out the goal to "land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth".
  • May 2 – The Freedom 7 spacecraft is readied for a launch attempt which would have resulted in the first American human spaceflight; it is canceled due to poor weather and rescheduled for May 5.
  • May 5 – Alan Shepard is launched on Freedom 7 on a sub-orbital spaceflight aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket, and becomes the first American in outer space. The flight lasts 15 minutes 22 seconds, and reaches an apogee of 187.42 kilometres (116.46 mi), and a maximum speed of 8,277 kilometres per hour (5,143 mph) (Mach 6.94).
  • May 8 – President Kennedy meets with Alan Shepard at the White House, to congratulate him on becoming the first American in space. He awards him the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in a ceremony on the White House lawn. The six other Mercury Seven astronauts attend the ceremony, the next of which, Gus Grissom, would launch into space less than three months later.
  • May 16 - The Taylor Committee presented it's findings about the Bay of Pigs invasion to Kennedy. General Maxwell Taylor, appointed by JFK to make an official inquiry, doomed the careers of Admiral Burke and CIA Director Allen Dulles by putting the blame for the fiasco squarely on their shoulders. After this, by November, the top three CIA, Dulles, Richard Bissel, and Charles Cabell were gone along with eventually 20% of the agency.[7]
  • May 16–18 – President Kennedy makes the first international trip of his presidency, travelling to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for a state visit. There he meets with Canadian governor general Georges Vanier and prime minister John Diefenbaker. On May 17, he addresses the Canadian parliament.[8]
  • May 25 – In an address to a joint session of the United States Congress, President Kennedy announces full presidential support for the goal to "commit...before this decade is out, to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" and urges Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, eventually consuming the largest financial expenditure of any nation in peacetime.[9] Though Kennedy had initially been convinced that NASA should attempt a human mission to Mars, NASA associate administrator Robert Seamans spent three days and nights working, ultimately successfully, to convince him otherwise.[10]

June edit

  • May 31-June 5 – President Kennedy makes the second international trip of his presidency.[8]
    • May 31-June 3 – Addresses North Atlantic Council, and meets with French president Charles de Gaulle in Paris, France. They "discussed many pressing issues from Laos to Berlin to Cuba," but not the attempted coup against DeGaulle or the CIA's role in it. The First Lady Jackie clearly charmed DeGaulle with her fluent French and her worldly discussions.[11]
    • June 3–4 – Meets with Austrian president Adolf Schärf and has a summit meeting with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.
    • June 4–5 – Visits with British queen Elizabeth II and prime minister Harold Macmillan in London, England.

July edit

August edit

September edit

  • September 25 – Address before the United Nations General Assembly (JFK's first of two) announcing the US intention to "challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race".

October edit

November edit

 
Rev. Theodore Hesburgh presents the 1961 Laetare Medal to President John F. Kennedy. Fr Edmund P. Joyce to the side.
  • November 22 – Kennedy was awarded the Laetare Medal, the highest honor for American Catholics by the University of Notre Dame, with Rev. Theodore Hesburgh in attendance.
  • November 28 - President Kennedy made a speech and gave the National Security Medal to Allen Dulles at the CIA headquarters, an event which functioned as his formal send-off. Despite the many retirements at CIA, the Dulles loyalists were largely untouched and Dulles met regularly with them at his Georgetown house still functioning as a spy chief for years to come.[12]

December edit

  • December 16–17 – President Kennedy makes the third international trip of his presidency.[8]
  • December 21–22 – President Kennedy makes the fourth international trip of his presidency, travelling to Hamilton, Bermuda, where he meets with British prime minister Harold Macmillan.[8]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ United States Congress Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. "Swearing-In Ceremony for President John F. Kennedy Forty-Fourth Inaugural Ceremonies, January 20, 1961". senate.gov.
  2. ^ Yale University Law School. "Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy". yale.edu.
  3. ^ Whealan, Ronald E. (October 30, 2005). "January 21, 1961". John F. Kennedy Library. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  4. ^ David Talbot, The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government (New York: Harper Perrenial, 2015), 417.
  5. ^ "Kennedy Signs Ike's 5 Star Commission". Chicago Tribune. March 24, 1961.
  6. ^ Talbot, The Devil's Crossroads, 403.
  7. ^ Talbot. The Devil's Crossroads, 409-412.
  8. ^ a b c d "Travels of President John F. Kennedy". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  9. ^ "NASA Langley Research Center's Contributions to the Apollo Program". Langley Research Center. November 21, 2004. Retrieved January 10, 2010. Answering President Kennedy's challenge and landing men on the moon by 1969 required the most sudden burst of technological creativity, and the largest commitment of resources ($24 billion), ever made by any nation in peacetime. At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 Americans and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities.
  10. ^ "Robert C. Seamans Jr". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. June 10, 2009. Retrieved January 10, 2010. President Kennedy had been convinced that America needed to send a man to Mars and back before the decade was out. Bob [Seamans] told me the story of working three days and nights trying to put together, clearly and succinctly, the case for the President that we cannot hit that goal, we need to go to the Moon.
  11. ^ Talbot. The Devil's Crossroads, 423-424.
  12. ^ Talbot, The Devil's Crossroads, 426-428ff.

External links edit

U.S. presidential administration timelines
Preceded by Kennedy presidency (1961) Succeeded by
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