John Fitzgerald Kennedy
King of Hearts
35th President of the United States: 1961–1963

©1996 Tina Mion
Oil and acrylic on canvas
From the collection of Frank Randall, Newport Beach, CA

John Kennedy and Richard Nixon were the first presidential candidates to debate on television.

Kennedy committed the nation to putting astronauts on the moon. His presidency saw the first Americans in space. He forced Russia to withdraw missiles from Cuba in our closest brush with nuclear war. Many people refer to the Kennedys as America’s royal family.

In a deck of cards the king of hearts is the “suicide king,” so-called because the king is nearly always thrusting a sword through his head. Stroboscopic photography made possible the “stop- action” image of a bullet as it passes through a playing card. Television made possible on November 22, 1963, the “stop-action” image of a bullet as it passed through a president.

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