Until this day, Kennedy’s words remain an iconic American speech and the above words are ones that most Americans know by heart. It was even the subject of Google’s Thursday home-page doodle. Google’s logo is drawn using words that Kennedy used on that historic day.
Caroline Kennedy, his adult daughter, told The Associated Press on Thursday that she has been thinking over her father's oft-quoted inaugural speech, when he proclaimed that Americans “shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
“I think he really expanded and redefined our idea of what it means to be a citizen — that everybody has something to contribute and everybody has something to give back to this country that's given us so much," Caroline Kennedy said. "It's not just an obligation, but it's really a rewarding experience and really a belief in government and politics as a noble profession.”
President Barack Obama and lawmakers from both parties on Thursday honored and celebrated the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s inauguration as president.
Obama delivered a speech in memory of the slain former president at an event at the Kennedy Center, the marble encased performing arts center named in honor of the 35th president.
The celebrations come two years to the date after Obama's own swearing in as the 44th president, he was 47 when he was elected, and only two years old when Kennedy took office.
Kennedy's inauguration is still remembered for his electrifying address that announced, as he put it, “that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”
At age 43, Kennedy was the youngest person to be elected president, and the second youngest to be president after Theodore Roosevelt, who took office after the assassination of William McKinley.
Congress also paused Thursday to mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's inauguration as president.
Democratic Senator Harry Reid, D-Nevada, the majority leader, and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, led congressional leaders to mark the anniversary with a tribute at the Capitol at noon on Thursday. Vice President also Joe Biden delivered remarks at the event, which took place in the rotunda.
The Kennedy presidential library in Boston marked the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's inauguration by bringing his presidency back to life in a new way -- through tweets.
Kennedy's appeal to American youth was like no president before or since. An eloquent and articulate speaker, Kennedy was the first Catholic president and the first man of Irish descent to become president. Some of his programs fostered enormous economic growth, making America a more powerful nation than it had been since World War II. Kennedy's vision of equal rights appealed to all who shared the dream of what America is supposed to be about.
Through a Twitter account, @Kennedy1961, the library is posting the happenings of JFK's thousand days in office as they unfolded, often in the president's own words.
On Twitter, one will find images and videos from their archives, a treasure trove of information that was recently digitized in its entirety and made accessible to the public online.
But just how good was Kennedy’s inaugural address?
Historians generally rank it as one of the four best US presidential inaugural speeches of all time. William Safire, former New York Times columnist and Nixon speechwriter, included it in a volume he compiled of the greatest speeches delivered in history, writing that it “set the standard by which presidential inaugurals have been judged in the modern era.”
All agree that Kennedy’s most famous line was: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
But throughout the speech is filled with memorable quotes: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But never let us fear to negotiate.” “My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America can do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of mankind.” “Let the word go forth from this time and place ... that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.” And so on.
The best inaugurals have come at times of national stress, giving the speakers a great subject, and Kennedy’s was no exception.
What are the three other best inaugural addresses, you ask? FDR’s 1933 speech, in which he famously declared, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” And Lincoln’s two inaugurals, which Safire said are among the greatest short works ever written.
At a time when insults rather than inspiration now seem the language of our politicians, cynics note that Kennedy’s 14-minute inaugural was filled with Cold War-era content, shaped by a World War II veteran for a country on the brink of cultural upheaval. This, they say, makes the speech outdated. And say that if it was uttered by a modern politician, Kennedy’s famous “ask not” call to service might well be derided as a socialist pitch for more government.
“Unfortunately, in today's environment, speeches are more likely to say, “Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what you can do for your party," says Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to both Republicans and Democrats who recently helped establish the nonpartisan organization No Labels.
