John Fitzgerald KennedyKennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917–63) a US politician in the Democratic Party, also known as Jack Kennedy and JFK, who was president of the US from 1961 to 1963. He was an extremely popular president, and he planned to improve education, the system of medical care, and civil rights in the US, although it was Lyndon B. Johnson who achieved most of these plans after Kennedy’s death. In 1961 Kennedy ordered the invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, and he was strongly criticized for this. Two years later he was shot in Dallas, Texas, and Lee Harvey Oswald was accused (accuse) of killing him.