Kennedy Timeline

The Kennedy Timeline


1941

Rosemary Kennedy, who is mentally ill, is institutionalized following a failed lobotomy. The eldest Kennedy daughter of Joseph and Rose, who passed away in 1994.

1944

Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr, the oldest Kennedy son, dies in a plane crash over the English Channel during World War II. The pilot was 29 at the time of his death.

1948

Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish dies in a plane crash in France at age 28. Her husband, William John Robert Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington, died in World War II.

1963

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, the second son of President Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, dies on August 7, two days after he was born almost six weeks premature.

President John F. Kennedy is assassinated on November 23 in Dallas. He was 46.

1964

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the youngest Kennedy child, escapes death in a plane crash that claims an aide, Edward Moss.

1968

Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated on June 5 in Los Angeles. The 42 year old had just won California's Democratic presidential primary election.

1969

Edward M. Kennedy, drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Massachusetts' Chappaquiddick Island. Mary Jo Kopechne, an aide who was in the car with him, dies in the accident.

1973

Edward M. Kennedy, Jr., the senator's son, loses his right leg to cancer.

Joseph P. Kennedy 2d, the son of Robert and Ethel, is the driver in a car accident on Cape Cod that leaves one passenger permanently paralyzed.

1984

David A. Kennedy, son of Robert, dies of a drug overdose in a Palm Beach, Florida, hotel. He was 28.

1986

Patrick Kennedy, the teenage son of Sen. Edward Kennedy, undergoes treatment for cocaine addiction.

1991

William Kennedy Smith, the son of Jean Kennedy Smith, is accused of raping a woman at the family's Palm Beach, Florida, vacation home. He is tried and acquitted.

1997

Michael Kennedy, the son of Robert, dies in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado. He was 39. Prior to the accident, Michael made headlines for allegedly having a long-term affair with his children's babysitter.

1999

John F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the late President John F. Kennedy, is killed in a plane crash, near Martha's Vineyard, Mass. He was 38 years old. In the plane crash his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette are killed with him. He is burried at sea, on his Grandmother Rose Kennedy's birthday, along with his wife, and sister-in-law.

JFK Jr. Memorial