The Kennedy tragedies,[1][2][3] colloquially called the Kennedy Curse, is a term sometimes used to describe a series of events involving members of the Kennedy family.[3][4][5][6][7][8] ==Chronology==
Believers in the curse generally cite the following core events as evidence of the family's misfortunes:
1941 – Rosemary Kennedy is believed to have been mentally challenged. However, some sources have claimed she was suffering from mental illness, such as depression. Because of her increasingly violent and severe mood swings, her father, Joe, Sr., arranged in secret for her to undergo a lobotomy. The surgery impaired her cognitive abilities even more, and as a result, she remained institutionalized until her death in 2005.[4][5][6][9]
August 23, 1956 – Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Arabella.[6] (Although the daughter was unnamed and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to her parents with a marker reading "Daughter", later reports indicated that the Kennedys had intended to name her Arabella.)[10]
June 19, 1964 – US SenatorEdward M. "Ted" Kennedy was involved in a plane crash in which one of his aides and the pilot were killed. He was pulled from the wreckage by fellow senator Birch E. Bayh II and spent weeks in a hospital recovering from a broken back, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.[11][4][5]
July 18, 1969 – In the Chappaquiddick incident, Ted Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge in Chappaquiddick Island, fatally trapping his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne inside.[4][5][6][7] In his July 25 televised statement, Kennedy stated that on the night of the incident he wondered "whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys."[12][13]
August 13, 1973 – Joseph P. Kennedy II was the driver of a car which crashed. His passenger Pam Kelley was permanently paralyzed.[4][6][9]
