Portrait of Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Birthday profile

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, American activist, co-founded the Special Olympics (died 2009)

Born
July 10, 1921
Died
August 11, 2009
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1921

About Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (née Kennedy; July 10, 1921 – August 11, 2009) was an American philanthropist. Shriver was a member of the Kennedy family by birth, and a member of the Shriver family through her marriage to Sargent Shriver, who was the United States ambassador to France and the final Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1972. She was a sister of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, U.S. senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith. Shriver nationalized the Special Olympics, a sports organization conceived for persons with intellectual disabilities. For her efforts on behalf of disabled people, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984. == Early life, education, and early career == Eunice Mary Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on July 10, 1921. She was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and Rose Fitzgerald. Her siblings included U.S. president and senator John F. Kennedy, U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. senator Edward Kennedy, and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith. She studied at Stanford University, where she competed on the swimming and track and field teams. After graduating from Stanford in 1943 with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology, she moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for the Special War Problems Division of the U.S. State Department.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Eunice Kennedy Shriver timeline

  1. Shriver founded the Special Olympics in 1968.
  2. Shriver was a member of the Kennedy family by birth, and a member of the Shriver family through her marriage to Sargent Shriver, who was the United States ambassador to France and the final Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1972.
  3. For her efforts on behalf of disabled people, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.

The world when Eunice Kennedy Shriver was born

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was born in 1921. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1921

  • #1 song"My Man" – Fanny Brice
  • Top movieThe Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
  • Best-selling bookMain Street – Sinclair Lewis

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJack Dempsey vs Georges Carpentier — first million-dollar gate
  • Top headlineWarren G. Harding inaugurated as 29th President
  • Technology milestoneAlbert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Defining fadOuija boards
  • Notable inventionLie detector (polygraph)
  • World population1.88 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWarren G. Harding
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • U.S. population108.5M

1921 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Eunice Kennedy Shriver's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19212026
Gas$0.26$3.45/gal
Average home$5,500$435,000
Average income$3,010$67,500
Movie ticket$0.15$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population108.5M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.