JFK Election 50th Anniversary (PHOTOS): Rare, Never-Seen-Before Pictures From Life.com

Fifty years ago today, on Nov. 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected the 35th president of the United States.

At 43 years old, Kennedy was the youngest person elected to the office (still true today). He defeated Richard Nixon in one of the closest national elections ever. Kennedy won the popular vote by two-tenths of one percent (49.7% to 49.5%), while taking the Electoral College 303 votes to Nixon's 219.

The following pictures come from LIFE photographers who documented his energetic campaign and election triumph, both public appearances and quieter moments JFK spent alone. These rare, never-seen-before photos were published for the first time today by LIFE.com to commemorate the election anniversary.

Be sure to check out the amazing full gallery from LIFE.com.

Photos courtesy of LIFE.com.

SEE THE FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS FROM LIFE.COM

Comments

[herocious]

04:37 PM on 11/23/2010

Here's a heartfelt response to the inexplicable event that happened 47 years + 1 day ago:

http://theopenend.com/2010/11/22/jfks-assassination-media-overlooks-47th-anniversary/

[key2thecup]

03:36 PM on 11/09/2010

And we still haven't caught his killers....

RIP JFK/RFK/JFK Jr

[softvoice]

11:21 AM on 11/09/2010

The Kennedy family served this country honorably giving so much of themselves to the betterment of our nation. One of the great disservices of modern history has been the way the Right wing has vilified this family and caused them great personal pain over the years.

[Tom Sutpen]

12:20 PM on 11/09/2010

Would you call Noam Chomsky right wing? He, after all, wrote the definitive study of Kennedy's foreign policy . . . and it is not a complimentary work.

[p456]

10:18 AM on 11/09/2010

When I look at photos or film of President Kennedy and think of Ted Kennedy and the rest of the brothers. I feel really sad. They were really for the people. God help us now all of our great leaders are gone.

[MohammedAbbasi]

09:19 AM on 11/09/2010

Wow! Those where the times when you hit a President of the US with a snowball the secret service guys smiled

[IllinoisObama]

09:15 AM on 11/09/2010

Times were not so different
Big money involved in politics
Instead of koch brothers it was HL HUNT (oil tycoon)

"Some theorists believe that Hunt was involved in the death of President John F. Kennedy. It was claimed that the day before the assassination, Jim Brading visited Hunt in his office in Dallas. Brading had links to Carlos Marcello, another figure suspected of being involved in the killing. Brading was arrested in the Dal-Tex building in the Dealey Plaza soon after the assassination took place, but was released soon afterwards.

Before Kennedy's inauguration, Hunt's "Facts Forum" was putting out religious appeals as to why Kennedy should not be permitted to enter the White House. The program had previously attacked Jews and supported Joseph McCarthy. On the eve of the assassination, Hunt's various outlets were spewing hateful material about the president. He thought Kennedy was weak on communism and knew Kennedy wanted to tax oil wealth, almost like other forms of wealth. He also viewed democracy as the devil's work. One of his sons helped pay for a large Dallas newspaper ad attacking Kennedy that prompted the president to say they were entering "nut country." Some of Hunt's literature was found in Ruby's pocket after he shot Oswald".

[Tom Sutpen]

12:27 PM on 11/09/2010

The program had previously attacked Jews and supported Joseph McCarthy

*****
So did Kennedy (support McCarthy, I mean; his old man attacked Jews)

[IllinoisObama]

12:35 PM on 11/09/2010

Please read again.
Hunt did not want Kennedy around because he wanted to tax oil wealth
Hunt did not like or dislike Kennedy with regard to Jews.
Hunt's organization did not like Jews.

Please read again - so you can understand

[Thaigold]

07:39 AM on 11/09/2010

What a heart breaker...Kennedy, looking into the abyss saw the evil. He is gone, but not the spirit of his view. John lives on in the hearts of thousands; and, though not able to stop the advance of avarice, lust, and evil, his spirit, in the hearts of the many will prevail.

[Tom Sutpen]

12:23 PM on 11/09/2010

Tell that to South Vietnamese citizens we herded into Concentration Camps as a by-product of his administration's insanely strident anti-Communist world-view.

[Carolyn Ervette Powell]

06:49 AM on 11/09/2010

I love you to JFK and so do I love all presidents of the world always thinking about not only is my not running for President not even a thought of mine that which makes a President great to me is running for President even if one does not become President of all the jobs in the world this is one I would never except even if it was given to me this is the hardest job on the earth but for those who love it its great and I think that is great for me and every President of the world.

[Tom Sutpen]

12:31 PM on 11/09/2010

Pay attention, children. This is what our rulers want all of us to sound like.

[jcop815]

01:41 AM on 11/09/2010

I see a LIFE 50th commemorative on Obama in the future. Too bad Reagan won't receive one.

[Tom Sutpen]

01:56 AM on 11/09/2010

He probably will. 'Time' got a lot of access to the Reagan White House.

[RButler]

01:38 AM on 11/09/2010

A few years after Kennedy died, there was some outrageous gallows humor that seems hard to believe that it happened so soon after.  There was a play called McBird, based on Macbeth, with LBJ being behind the assassination.  Then, there was a satiric piece in the Harvard Lampoon that had Jackie die in Dallas instead of Jack.  When she climbed onto the trunk lid of the Lincoln limousine, she fell off and was run over by the press bus.  Every year on her birthday a mannequin of her in that pink suit with tire tracks on it was displayed in Bloomingdale's window and gay men all over the world mourned her passing. 
Young people think they are being so outrageous nowadays. 

[Enliberate]

01:54 AM on 11/09/2010

Is that really true about the Bloomingdale's window?

[justlw]

02:19 AM on 11/09/2010

No, it was part of the NatLamp (not Harvard Lampoon) parody issue, which, if I remember, was commemorating the fifth JFK term as president.

[Quinny]

01:31 AM on 11/09/2010

Johnny, we hardly knew ye....

"A long, long time ago,
I can still remember..."

Don McLean

[Tom Sutpen]

01:58 AM on 11/09/2010

That oleaginous piece of nostalgia mongering concerned Buddy Holly.

[Quinny]

12:19 PM on 11/09/2010

The song was built around the death of Buddy Holly,
but is overall a song about the lost hopes and
disillusion McLean felt regarding the 1960's.
And how many songs have you written Tom?
Where can we pick up your latest release?

[kirtlandpat]

01:07 AM on 11/09/2010

If you are 50+ with ANY memory of the Kennedy assassination, I highly recommend you go to Dealey Plaza and walk around and conduct your own investigation. You will be amazed at how much you think, how much you remember and how immersed in history you will find yourself. Go in the School Book Depository...go up there...yeah, it's a museum now, but you can transcend that...and put yourself right there. It is truly one of the best and most incredible experiences you can have as an American.

I'm no Dallas shill. I'm from Cleveland. It is awesome. Do it.

[RButler]

01:29 AM on 11/09/2010

I was in Dallas in '98 and walked by Dealy Plaza but didn't go in the depository.  I was most surprised by how narrow the street was around the corner from the depository.  In all the film and video clips I've ever seen, it looked spread out and spacious like Los Angeles and when I was there, it looked like an older city in the mid west.  TV really distorts things in a subtle way and I don't mean intentionally. 

[kel]

05:49 AM on 11/09/2010

I agree my brother lives in the Dallas area and we took our kids to see this.
It's pretty remarkable to tour this area. Stand on the X and see the guy pushing his DVD about the facts we were never told - It's a nice museum and I totally agree with your post and thoughts.

[Olderandwiser55]

12:44 AM on 11/09/2010

One of my favorite quotes

JFK said "Harry Truman once said there are 14 or 15 million Americans who have the resources to have representatives in Washington to protect their interests, and that the interests of the great mass of other people, the hundred and fifty or sixty million, is the responsibility of the President of the United States. And I propose to fulfill it"

[RButler]

01:31 AM on 11/09/2010

I remember that quotation somewhat, especially the part about his responsibility, since lost by many presidents thereafter. 

[Olderandwiser55]

11:31 AM on 11/09/2010

I think presidents after that have been afraid to say they are president for the 90-95%, not for the wealthy who have their own lobbyists & attorneys etc..not without good reason. I blame the rich and powerful for his assassination. Jackie moved the kids overseas after that, again for good reason I think-who else besides Onassis could protect them.

[rjaxone]

11:49 PM on 11/08/2010

I wonder what JFK's presidency would have been like if today's 24/7 media had been in operation back then...

[abbyrose86]

11:52 PM on 11/08/2010

Indeed...great question.

[KillgoreTrout43]

12:08 AM on 11/09/2010

It would be tarnished and degraded by FOX news.

[curtisraymond]

12:32 AM on 11/09/2010

bingo!

[Quinny]

01:21 AM on 11/09/2010

He would have wiped the floor with those
clowns at Fox....JFK, in the words of Ted
Sorenson, was "always the smartest man
in the room..."

[draven646]

11:24 PM on 11/08/2010

I wish we could know who or which group assassinated this great man - for closure if nothing else.

[Quinny]

12:11 AM on 11/09/2010

It's really not that difficult a question to figure out.
JFK had made some enemies and those enemies
might have been able to assassinate him. But VERY
FEW of those enemies also possessed the power to
cover it up. Pick up a copy of "JFK And The Unspeakable:
Why He Died And Why It Matters" by James Douglas.
The book answers a lot of those questions. Oliver Stone
called it the "best book yet written" on the people
and the motives behind the death of JFK.

All The Best,
Quinny

[1logicalthinker]

01:51 AM on 11/09/2010

I could not agree more about your assessment of "JFK and The Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. Fanned!

I have a friend who has albeen been thoroughly convinced of Oswald being the lone assassin, as he had previously read many books on the subject. After I lent him this book, he did a complete 180 degree turn, and is now convinced the government was behind the assassination. Note: we were both adults in 1963.

If anyone reading this thinks Oswald was the assassin, I challenge you to read this very important book. Please!

[1logicalthinker]

01:52 AM on 11/09/2010

make that "always been..." not "albeen been..." Sorry.

[Tom Sutpen]

02:06 AM on 11/09/2010

I think I can help you out with that.
Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot him from the sixth floor of his place of employment.

[1logicalthinker]

03:36 AM on 11/09/2010

Oh, and did Oswald also change the autopsy photos, as well?
Did Oswald also withdraw the Secet Service agents who normally stood on the footpegs of the limousine as it left Dallas's Love Field Airport?
Did Oswald make sure there were no motorcyles around the President's car, but were kept one car back, by the Vice-President's car?
Did Oswald cancel the military security unit that provides additional security for the Secret Service whenever the President travels to an American City, other than Washington?
Did Oswald have friends in Dealey Plaza, who flashed Secret Service credentials when challenged by local law enforcement, even though there were no Secret Service people on the ground in that area?

Read "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters," by James Douglass, and then we'll talk.