Pelosi: I partied with Kennedy (and here's the picture to prove it)



Somehow she manages to keep her eyes on the camera, even as the handsome new President John F Kennedy beams a megawatt smile down at her.

This image shows House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a blushing young girl with the man whose presidency - and horrifying assassination - would fascinate America for the next 50 years.

Mrs Pelosi posted the image, which she did not date or describe, on her Facebook wall yesterday to mark the 50th anniversary of JFK's inauguration.



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Frozen in time: A 20-year-old Nancy Pelosi somehow manages to keep her eyes on the camera as the handsome new President John F Kennedy grins down at her in an undated image on her Facebook page

50 years: Vice President Joseph Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Caroline Kennedy listen while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during an event to honour John F. Kennedy's inauguration on Capitol Hill

Barack Obama pays tribute to President Kennedy at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

She captioned it: "50 years ago today, I was a young Trinity College student standing outside in the sunlit cold, listening to a young President’s inaugural call to 'the energy, the faith, the devotion...that will light our country and all who serve it – and the glow from that fire can truly light the world."

'The leadership of President John F. Kennedy is not just a memory, but a living force that still asks every citizen to lead—and perhaps that is the most precious gift of all.'

Some blogs claimed the image was taken at President Kennedy's inauguration ball - however in other images from that night he is wearing a white bow tie, instead of a black one. A message left for Mrs Pelosi's office has not yet been returned.



She published the image as President Obama paid tribute to his predecessor yesterday.



All smiles: Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of JFK, shares a joke with Vice President Joe Biden as the politician's famous inauguration speech was remembered Remembering the President: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, right, gives a thumbs-up as he meets cousins Saoirse Kennedy, far left, and Noah Kennedy at a celebration of the 50th anniversary of JFK's inauguration

Around 100 members of the murdered leader’s family gathered in Washington to mark the 50th anniversary of his inauguration.

The current U.S. leader hailed Mr Kennedy for leading a ‘volatile America in a tinderbox world’ with a steady hand.

His daughter Caroline Kennedy joined members of her father’s administration, civil rights activists and astronaut Buzz Aldrin to mark the 35th president’s legacy in Washington.

JFK famously called out to Americans to be ready to make sacrifices for the good of the world in his inaugural speech on January 20, 1961. He was assassinated two years later.

Inaugurated: John F Kennedy, who narrowly beat Richard Nixon to the presidency, sits at his desk on his first day in office

He said that ‘the torch had been passed to a new generation of Americans’ who he challenged to ‘ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country’.

Paying tribute to those words today, his daughter said: ‘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.’

Family members gathered at the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts on the bank of the Potomac River which stands as a living tribute to Mr Kennedy, who’s White House embraced the arts.

It opened three weeks of performances that will recreate moments from those Camelot days.

President Barack Obama, opening the concert, paid tribute to the ‘unfinished life’ of JFK and said his inauguration and his accompanying call for Americans to serve their country still ‘inspires us and lights our way.’

Although the country faced different challenges today, Mr Obama said ‘we cannot forget we are the heirs of this president who showed us what was possible. Because of that vision, I can stand here today as president of the US.’

The current U.S. leader was not even born in 1961 when John F Kennedy was inaugurated.

Earlier, speaking at a ceremony in the Capitol's rotunda, Vice President Joe Biden said JFK's cause was to bring America back ‘to what it should be’.

‘His call to service literally, not figuratively, still resounds from generation to generation,’ Mr Biden said.

The celebrations come as the Kennedy power in Washington has faded.

For the first time in 63 years, no one with the Kennedy name is serving in elected office. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island left the US House of Representatives this month.

Caroline Kennedy said she would not be surprised if someone in her family returned to national politics - but that it probably would not be her.

She flirted with a 2008 Senate bid in New York, but bowed out.

Final moments: JFK and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy riding a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, moments before he was assassinated

Tragedy: Jacqueline Kennedy kisses the casket of her husband on November 24, 1963, while her daughter Caroline kneels alongside

TIMELINE TO A PRESIDENCY: JOHN F KENNEDY

September 26, 1960 - Kennedy appears in the first televised election debates in history as he campaigns to become leader. The debate was seen as the turning point in the campaign.

November 8, 1960 - JFK defeats Republican Richard Nixon with 49.7 per cent of the vote. Nixon had 49.5 per cent.

January 20, 1961 - Inauguration for the new leader.

March 1, 1961 - Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps, a volunteer programme to promote world peace.

September 12, 1962 - Kennedy accounces that the U.S. want to put man on the moon

October 1962 - Cuban Missile crisis which is regarded as the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. Tensions rose after the USSR placed nuclear weapons in Cuba within striking distance of the U.S. The crisis eventually passed without a shot being fired.

June 11, 1963 - The President calls for civil rights legislation to be brought in.

August 5, 1963 - The U.S. and the USSR sign a nuclear test ban treaty pledging not to test bombs in air, space and water.

November 22, 1963 - The President was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was shot once in the back and then in the head.