(First Tuesday of March)
March 1, 1961: President John F. Kennedy wrote an executive order establishing a volunteer program with the goal of providing technical assistance in order to help peoples all around the world better develop their economies and societies. Of course, the other goal is, by having people from the U.S. work with people in other countries, to develop more mutual understanding and respect.
The eventual goal was to promote world peace and friendship.
The executive order was authorized by Congress later that year.
More than 235,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps since that date. They have served in more than 141 different countries. 
Having a peaceful "army" of young people - mostly college graduates - volunteering all over the world wasn't just Kennedy's idea. Several other politicians floated similar ideas after World War II. Senator Brien McMahon said that such a group of young people would act as "missionaries of democracy." Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr., actually introduced a bill to create a government-funded volunteer organization in 1957 - but that bill stalled somewhere along the line.
I believe it was Kennedy who came up with the name Peace Corps. And of course, he managed to get the organization off the ground.
For sure, the Peace Corps hasn't been without its problems. It's a human endeavor! - there are going to be problems! - but the goals are wonderful, and many observers credit the organization with changing for the better the way people in other nations view the U.S., how people in the U.S. view other nations, and even how people in the U.S. view their own country.
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