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Home Tips > Tips By Category > Tips you can implement daily Ted Kennedy was expelled from Harvard College for cheating on a freshman year exam, but was readmitted two years later, following service in the U.S. Army. He graduated from Harvard in 1956 and from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1959.
His 1958 marriage to Virginia Joan Bennett produced three children and ended in divorce in 1982. He was a manager in his brother John's successful 1960 campaign for president. He then worked as an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Kennedy entered the Senate in a 1962 special election to fill the seat once held by his brother John.
He was seriously injured in an airplane crash in 1964 and suffered from lifelong back pain as a result.
Kennedy was elected his first six-year term in 1964 and was reelected in 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006.
In the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, the car Kennedy drove ran off a bridge and plunged into water, resulting in the death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence. The accident significantly damaged his chances of becoming President of the United States. Kennedy's sole run for the office, in the 1980 presidential election, ended in a primary campaign loss to incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter.
Kennedy was known for his oratorical power: his 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 Democratic National Convention rallying cry for American liberalism being among his best-known moments.
Kennedy's early opposition and rhetoric helped lead to the defeat of the 1987 Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination on philosophical grounds and usher in an era of intense political battles over federal judicial nominations.
Kennedy's personal life was often subject to criticism, but his 1992 marriage to Victoria Anne Reggie stabilized his life.
Kennedy was the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He became known as "The Lion of the Senate", due to his long history and influence in the legislature. More than 300 bills that Kennedy and his staff wrote have been enacted into law. He was known for his ability to work with Republicans and to find compromises among Senators with disparate views.
Kennedy played a major role in passing many laws that have affected the lives of all Americans, including the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the National Cancer Act of 1971, the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, the COBRA Act of 1985, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act in 1990, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the Mental Health Parity Act in 1996 and 2008, the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997, the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, and the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in 2009.
During the 2000s, he was a leader of several unsuccessful efforts at immigration reform. Over decades in office, Kennedy's major legislative goal had been enactment of universal health care, which he continued to work toward during the Obama administration.
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