John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), thirty-fifth president of the United States, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, to a family already very familiar with politics. Kennedy earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard University in 1940. That same year, his senior thesis, Why England Slept, was published. It examined Britain's reaction to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. From 1941 to 1945, Kennedy served in World War II as a torpedo boat commander and was honored for his bravery. His political career began when he returned home to Massachusetts. In 1946, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives and, in 1952, to the United States Senate. During his eight years as a senator, Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier and wrote the 1956 Pulitzer Prize winner Profiles in Courage, a book that examines the brave and moral actions of eight politicians. In 1960, he was elected president of the United States, the youngest person and the first Catholic to achieve that office. In 1962, President Kennedy faced a serious nuclear confrontation with what was then the Soviet Union in an episode known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also created the Peace Corps and was a supporter of civil rights legislation. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.