John_f._kennedy,_jr.

For John Kennedy Jr., Australian footballer, see John Kennedy, Jr. (footballer).

"John-John" redirects here. For people named John John, see John John.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr.
John F. Kennedy Jr. greets invited guests at the HBO and Imagine Entertainment premiere held at Kennedy Space Center
Born	November 25 1960(1960-11-25) Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Died	July 16 1999 (aged 38) Atlantic Ocean
Occupation	lawyer and journalist
Spouse	Carolyn Bessette
Children	none

John F. Kennedy, Jr. with his father, John F. Kennedy, at the White House in 1963.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John F. Kennedy, Jr., JFK Jr., John Jr., John Kennedy or John-John, was an American lawyer, journalist, socialite and publisher. He was the son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the younger brother of Caroline Kennedy (as well as the older brother of the deceased Patrick Bouvier Kennedy). He was known as "America\'s Son" for he was one of the few presidential children to actually be raised in the White House, and thus America watched him grow up.

Early life

Born 17 days after his father was elected to the presidency, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was in the public spotlight from infancy. He had lived for most of the first three years of his life in the White House and under the eye of the media who adored his antics. The nickname "John-John" came from a reporter mishearing his father calling him ("John" spoken twice in quick succession), and the name stuck although the family never used it. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, three days before Kennedy, Jr.\'s third birthday.

The funeral procession actually took place on his birthday, November 25, 1963. While his father\'s flag-draped casket was being carried out from St. Matthew\'s Cathedral, young JFK, Jr. stepped forward, and in an emotional and iconic image of the 1960s gave his father a final salute.Lucas, Dean (2007-07-22). Famous Pictures Magazine - JFK jr salutes JFK (HTML). Famous Pictures Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-07-21.

John, Jr. grew up primarily on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Even as a boy, he was often photographed and still referred to publicly as "John-John", although Kennedy family members themselves did not use the nickname.Kennedy, Year in Review, CNN. After his father\'s death, his mother was married to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis from 1968 until the latter\'s death in 1975, when John was 14 years old.

Education

John F. Kennedy, Jr. attended The Collegiate School in New York City for the first through tenth grades, and later graduated from the Phillips Academy. Despite a less-than-average academic record, John F. Kennedy, Jr. was accepted into Harvard University, from where his father and sister graduated. Kennedy matriculated at Brown University, graduating in 1983 with a bachelor\'s degree in history. At Brown, Kennedy was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. In 1989, he earned a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law. He failed the New York bar exam twice before passing on the third try.

Career

He spoke at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. He was an assistant district attorney in Manhattan from 1989 to 1993. In 1995, he founded George, a glossy politics-as-lifestyle monthly which sometimes took editorial aim even at members of his own family. After Kennedy\'s death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette Filipacchi MagazinesBercovici, Jeff. Hachette delivers death ax to George. Media Life Magazine. 2001. and continued for over a year. With falling advertising sales, the magazine folded in early 2001.CNN Transcript: Reliable Sources: \'George\' Folds. 6 January 2001.

Marriage

Through the 1980s until his death, Kennedy was an often-seen and much-photographed personality in Manhattan. He married Carolyn Bessette on September 21, 1996 on Cumberland Island in Georgia, and had dated Madonna, Daryl Hannah & Sarah Jessica Parker prior to his marriage. Furthermore, he was rumoured to have had an affair with Princess Diana, but this was unconfirmed.[Brown, Tina (2007). The Diana Chronicles. New York: Doubleday, 277-279. ISBN 978-0-385-51708-9.]

Death

On July 16, 1999, at the age of 38, John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed along with his wife and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, when the aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Kennedy was piloting a Piper Saratoga II HP from Essex County Airport in New Jersey to Martha\'s Vineyard where the Kennedy family has a vacation house. Kennedy and his wife were traveling to the wedding of cousin Rory Kennedy, which was then postponed. Lauren was to have been dropped off at Martha\'s Vineyard.

Kennedy had 310 hours of flight experience (the FAA requires 250 hours to qualify for a commercial pilot\'s license), including 45 hours of night flying and 36 hours in the high-performance Piper Saratoga. He had completed about half of an instrument training course. He was not yet rated for flying in low-visibility; but, at the time of his crash, he was flying in conditions that were covered by his license. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation found no evidence of mechanical malfunction and determined that the probable cause was "the pilot\'s failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze, and the dark night." The report noted that spatial disorientation as a result of continued VFR flight into adverse weather conditions is a common cause of fatal airplane accidents.

According to literature found in most FAA-approved flight training books, a pilot\'s inability to see the horizon can lead to spatial disorientation. The inner ear may give the pilot the impression that the plane is turning when it isn\'t. It takes many hours of instrument training for a pilot to be able to fly in IFR conditions, conditions that most likely existed when Kennedy was flying on his route to Martha\'s Vineyard. Over the water at night there are few lights, and those lights that existed were most likely obscured by the haze, resulting in the boundary between sky and water on the horizon becoming difficult to determine.

Kyle Bailey, a pilot believed to have been the last person to see Kennedy alive at Essex County Airport, subsequently stated that he had canceled his own flight to Martha\'s Vineyard because the enroute weather was "a little too hazy." It also emerged that while Kennedy had flown from Essex County Airport to the Vineyard several times before, he had never done it without an instructor pilot aboard or at night.

During the memorial service on July 23, 1999, Kennedy\'s uncle, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, said, "We dared to think that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But, like his father, he had every gift but length of years." And of his nephew\'s marriage, he invoked what had been said of his brother\'s Presidency: both lasted 1,000 days. Then U.S. President Bill Clinton attended the service and ordered that the flag at the White House be lowered to half-staff in honor of John F. Kennedy, Jr.

At President Clinton\'s orders, warships of the United States Navy assisted in the search for the downed plane. With the permission of Secretary of Defense William Cohen, a memorial service for the three victims was held aboard the Navy ship USS Briscoe. The cremated remains of Kennedy, his wife and sister-in-law were then scattered from the ship off the coast of Martha\'s Vineyard.

A wrongful death lawsuit brought by the Bessette family against the Kennedy estate concluded with an undisclosed out of court settlement.Biography of Carolyn Bessette. The settlement avoided the publicity of a public trial, as the accident facts pointed to pilot error.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

John F. Kennedy, Jr.

See also

• Kennedy Curse
• Kennedy family
• John F. Kennedy assassination
• Robert F. Kennedy assassination
• Sensory illusions in aviation
• Spatial disorientation
• Bárány chair
• The Day the Music Died, and Roger Peterson (pilot)
• Flash Airlines Flight 604
• Air India Flight 855

External links

• John F. Kennedy, Jr. website
• John F. Kennedy, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
• National Transportation Safety Board investigation final report
• Web of conspiracy surrounds JFK Jr.\'s death
• JFK Jr\'s political donations
• CNN.com In-depth coverage of JFK Jr\'s death
• Kennedy\'s body, airplane wreckage found
• John F. Kennedy, Jr. at the Notable Names Database
• Regarding JFK Jr.\'s burial at sea
• JFK II & The Assassination of JFK, Jr.
• If William Shakespear was still alive, we all know what he would call this tragedy: Unfortunate Son

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