By: History.com Editors

1929

Future first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy is born

History.com Editors

Published: November 16, 2009

Last Updated: January 31, 2025

On July 28, 1929, President John F. Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, is born into a prominent New York family.

Jacqueline, or “Jackie” as she was called, grew up an avid horsewoman and reader. In 1951, after graduating from George Washington University, Jackie toured Europe with her sister. That fall, she returned to the U.S. to begin her first job as the Washington Times-Herald‘s “Inquiring Camera Girl.” Her assignment was to roam the streets of Washington, D.C., asking strangers “man on the street” questions and then snapping their picture for publication.

JFK and Jackie Wed

A newsreel film report on the 1953 marriage of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier.

Shortly after her return to the capital, at a dinner party in Georgetown, she met a young, handsome senator from Massachusetts named John F. Kennedy. They dated over the next two years, and in May 1953, Kennedy proposed. Jackie accepted and the couple married on September 12, 1953, at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The Kennedys then settled in Washington, D.C., where Kennedy embarked on a meteoric political career. He served as a senator from Massachusetts from 1953 until he was elected president of the United States in 1961. At the time, he and Jackie were the youngest couple ever to reside in the White House.

The couple presented a public facade of a happy marriage—the general public did not know of Kennedy’s affairs with other women—and Jackie was a dedicated wife and civic-minded first lady. She raised two children in the White House and restored the building to historic specifications. She was a popular celebrity and style icon for women around the world. On a trip to France in 1961, President Kennedy once quipped “I’m the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.”

The most memorable and tragic images of Jackie Kennedy were captured on film on November 22, 1963, immediately after her husband was shot while the couple was riding in an open-car motorcade through the city of Dallas, Texas. A home-movie camera caught a frantic Jackie scrambling over the back seat of the car and onto the trunk. Later that day, the press photographers snapped Jackie as she stood—shocked, stoic and solemn in a blood-stained suit—next to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson as he took the oath of office en route to Washington on Air Force One.

10 Things You May Not Know About Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Check out 10 surprising facts about the life and work of one of America’s most iconic first ladies.

John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy are shown on the White House lawn.

By: Evan Andrews

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on July 28th

1868

14th Amendment adopted

July 28, 1868: Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including formerly enslaved people—is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Secretary of State William Seward issues a proclamation certifying the amendment.

Signing of the United States Constitution

1914

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War.

1932

Bonus Marchers evicted by U.S. Army

During the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover orders the U.S. Army under General Douglas MacArthur to evict by force the Bonus Marchers from the nation’s capital.

1942

Stalin issues Order No. 227—outlawing cowards

On July 28, 1942, Joseph Stalin, premier and dictator of the Soviet Union, issues Order No. 227, what came to be known as the “Not one step backward” order, in light of German advances into Russian territory. The order declared, “Panic makers and cowards must be liquidated on the spot. Not one step backward without orders from higher headquarters! Commanders…who abandon a position without an order from higher headquarters are traitors to the Motherland.”

1945

Plane crashes into Empire State Building

A United States military plane crashes into the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945, killing 14 people. The freak accident was caused by heavy fog.

1965

President Johnson announces more troops to Vietnam

President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that he has ordered an increase in U.S. military forces in Vietnam, from the present 75,000 to 125,000. Johnson also said that he would order additional increases if necessary. He pointed out that to fill the increase in military manpower needs, the monthly draft calls would be raised from 17,000 to 35,000. At the same time, Johnson reaffirmed U.S. readiness to seek a negotiated end to the war, and appealed to the United Nations and any of its member states to help further this goal.

1968

American Indian Movement (AIM) is founded

On July 28, 1968, several hundred Native Americans in Minneapolis, Minnesota attend a meeting, organized by community activists George Mitchell, Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt, to discuss issues facing their local Indigenous community. This event marks the start of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, a primary proponent of the Red Power movement. Inspired by the gains of the Black civil rights movement, AIM sought to address the extreme suffering of Indigenous people and create a path for self-determination and empowerment.

1975

Grizzly bear is classified as a “threatened” species

On July 28, 1975, the grizzly bear—once the undisputed king of the western wilderness—is given federal protection as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

1976

One of the worst earthquakes in modern history destroys Chinese city

At 3:42 a.m. on July 28, 1976, an earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude on the Richter scale flattens Tangshan, a Chinese industrial city with a population of about one million people. As almost everyone was asleep in their beds, instead of outside in the relative safety of the streets, the quake was especially costly in terms of human life. An estimated 242,000 people in Tangshan and surrounding areas were killed, making the earthquake one of the deadliest in recorded history, surpassed only by the 300,000 who died in the Calcutta earthquake in 1737, and the 830,000 thought to have perished in China’s Shaanxi province in 1556.

1978

“Animal House” released in theaters

On July 28, 1978, National Lampoon’s Animal House, a movie spoof about 1960s college fraternities starring John Belushi, opens in U.S. theaters. Produced with an estimated budget of $3 million, Animal House became a huge, multi-million-dollar box-office hit, spawned a slew of cinematic imitations and became part of pop-culture history with such memorable lines as “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

2016

Hillary Clinton accepts Democratic nomination for president

Ninety-five years after women were first granted the right to vote, on July 28, 2016, former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton makes history by accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president, becoming the first woman to lead a major U.S. political party.

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Citation Information

Article title
Future first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy is born
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 21, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
January 31, 2025
Original Published Date
November 16, 2009

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