RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Monday, May 29, 2017, officially marks the observance of the 100"1 birthday of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35lh President of the United States; and
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago honors the memory of a great leader who envisioned a "New Frontier" of peace, international cooperation, the eradication of poverty and an end to social and racial injustice; and
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of this anniversary by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts and was the son of the late Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and Rose Elizabeth Kennedy; and
WHEREAS, Educated in private schools in Brookline, Massachusetts, the Bronx, New York and Wallingford, Connecticut, John Fitzgerald Kennedy concluded his education at Princeton University and Harvard University; and
WHEREAS, In June 1938, John Fitzgerald Kennedy sailed to Europe with his father and older brother Joseph to work in the American Embassy in London where Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., served as Ambassador to the Court of St. James; and
WHEREAS, After graduating cum laude from Harvard College in 1940 with a Bachelor of Arts in Government, with a concentration on international affairs, John Fitzgerald Kennedy joined the United States Naval Reserve on September 24, 1941; and
WHEREAS, While in command of PT-109 as it conducted nighttime patrols near New Georgia in the Solomon Islands on August 1-2, 1943, the patrol boat was rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri, and cut in two; and
WHEREAS, John Fitzgerald Kennedy's heroism saved the life of ten surviving crew members when it appeared that all was lost; and
WHEREAS, For his gallantry in the rescue of his crew, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal; and
WHEREAS, In 1946, John Fitzgerald Kennedy won election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Boston's 11th Congressional District; and
WHEREAS, In the fall 1952 national election, John Fitzgerald Kennedy defeated Republican Henry Cabot Lodge in his bid for the U.S. Senate from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and
WHEREAS, While serving in Congress in 1956, John Fitzgerald Kennedy published his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles in Courage; and
WHEREAS, In 1958, John Fitzgerald Kennedy won a second term of office by an overwhelming margin; and
WHEREAS, John Fitzgerald Kennedy announced his Presidential candidacy on January 2, 1960; and
WHEREAS, Facing three prominent and highly respected challengers in Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Senator Hubert Humphrey and former Senator Adlai Stevenson, John Fitzgerald Kennedy won the closely contested nomination at the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles on July 11-15; and
WHEREAS, On September 26, 1960 John Fitzgerald Kennedy debated Vice President Richard Nixon in the first of three nationally televised debates inside the WBBM-TV Studios on McCIurg Court in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, In one of the most closely contested presidential elections in American history John Fitzgerald Kennedy defeated Vice President Richard Nixon by two tenths of one per cent of the popular vote; and
WHEREAS, The presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy ushered in a bold and remarkable era of American politics with emphasis on the expansion of the U.S. space program and winning the Cold War by promoting greater cooperation and through economics, foreign aid and trade missions to the "hotspots" of the world; and
WHEREAS, The administration launched the Peace Corps, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Agency for International Development (AID) and the Alliance for Progress; and
WHEREAS, This era of social progress both domestic and abroad fashioned by John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his administration marked a new beginning for the American people; and
WHEREAS, The John Fitzgerald Kennedy legacy would endure in the six decades following the tragic assassination of this great world leader on November 22, 1963; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council assembled this twenty-fourth day of May, 2017 pay tribute to the memory of our martyred President on the centennial anniversary of his birthday by declaring May 29, 2017 as President John F. Kennedy Day in Chicago.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be sent to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Columbia Point, Boston, Massachusetts.
