American Experience

On one of his many foreign trips, Senator Robert Kennedy addresses students in racially segregated South Africa, and emphasizes "the enlargement of liberty for individual human beings."

Robert Kennedy announces the creation of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, a private-public partnership designed to address poverty in a Brooklyn, New York neighborhood.

Traveling through the Mississippi delta, Robert Kennedy is confronted with extreme poverty in rural America.

After much deliberation, Robert Kennedy announces his candidacy for the presidency. Although late to the race, he wins primaries in Washington, D.C., Indiana, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

After winning the California primary, Robert Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles; he dies the next day. The Los Angeles Police Department determines that Sirhan Sirhan, a deranged Palestinian, acted on his own.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver convenes the first Special Olympics for people with mental retardation in Chicago's Soldiers Field. The organization quickly expands and by 2003 will boast 1 million participants in more than 150 nations.

Following an appreciation party for volunteers on Robert Kennedy’s campaign, Senator Ted Kennedy drives his car off a bridge at Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts. Kennedy manages to escape; his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, does not. Kennedy will not report the accident for hours.

Ted Kennedy delivers a national television address to explain his actions at Chappaquiddick.

Joe Sr. dies. He is survived by five of his nine children and by his wife Rose.

Ted Kennedy is reelected to the Senate, but loses his post as Majority Whip. He chairs the Senate Health Committee.

Ted Kennedy announces his candidacy for the 1980 presidential election.

Ted Kennedy wins Democratic primaries in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, California, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and New Jersey. The rest go to the incumbent, President Jimmy Carter.

In an emotional speech to the Democratic national convention, Ted withdraws his bid for the presidency.

Ted Kennedy announces he will not run for president in 1984. After 24 years of marriage, he divorces his wife Joan.

Ted Kennedy announces he will not be a candidate for President in 1988.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy II, son of Robert Kennedy, is elected to Congress from the 8th District of Massachusetts. He will serve until 1999, when he steps down to run the Citizens Energy Corporation, a non-profit organization negotiating affordable energy for the poor.

Ted Kennedy marries Victoria Reggie.

Ted Kennedy's son, Patrick Joseph Kennedy, is elected to Congress from Rhode Island's First District. His current term ends in 2011.

Robert Kennedy's oldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, is sworn in as lieutenant governor of Maryland. Her bid to be Maryland's governor in 2002 will fail.

Family matriarch Rose Kennedy dies, just a few months short of her 105th birthday.

En route to the wedding of cousin Rory Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy die in an airplane accident off the coast of Massachusetts.

Teddy Kennedy is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He will survive over a year, passing at the family compound in Hyannis Port on August 25, 2009.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies at age 88.