I've heard these before, and Snopes actually did an article about them:
http://www.snopes.com/history/american/linckenn.htm
I'll do a brief recap of what they say:
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Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
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This is true, although their political careers had little other resemblance to each other.
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Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
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Not surprising considering they lived 100 years apart, and even less of a coincidence when you consider that a presidential election can only be held every 4 years.
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Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
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Not quite. Lincoln cared more about the divisivness of the country, and stated that he would have allowed slavery to continue (and let the institution of it die a slow death) if the Union were able to survive half slave/half free without going to war. He actually believed in relocating freed blacks to Liberia so they could live apart from whites in a separate society. Kennedy only did so after the University of Mississippi's refusal to admit a Black student (James Meredith) to attend class and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
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True but a little misleading. Lincoln did lose 2 children, one died at age 3 of tuberculosis and the other died at age of 11 of typhoid. Kennedy's kid died 2 days after being born.
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Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
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Not that unlikely. There is a 1 in 7 chance of being killed on any given day. A killer would only really have a chance at a public function, and most public functions are on the weekend (both men were killed at public functions, a play and a parade).
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Both Presidents were shot in the head.
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Well, duh. The only two shots with reasonable chance of killing someone are in the head and in the chest. Both men with were seated and shot from behind, so a head shot was the only real choice.
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Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln
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FALSE. Lincoln's two White House secretaries were John G. Nicolay and John Hay.
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Both were assassinated by Southerners.
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Not quite. Bookes was born in Maryland (a northern state). He spent most of his life in the north and considered himself a northerner, he was just a southern sympathizer.
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Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
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Both picked Southerners to help them win the south, and Johnson is one of the most common surnames (like "John" is a common given name).
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John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln , was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
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WRONG. Booth was born in 1838.
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Both assassins were known by their three names.
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Not quite. Booth was usually billed as "J. Wilkes Booth" or simply "John Wilkes". Oswald was usually referred to as "Lee Oswald", his full name only became common usage AFTER the assassination.
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Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
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Inaccurate. Booth was caught and killed in a tobacco shed several days after the shooting, Oswald shot Kennedy from (not in) a textbook warehouse and was captured alive by police in a movie theatre 1 hour later.
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Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
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Depends on your defintion of "assasinated". When Booth was caught, the shed he was in was set on fire and a trooper shot him so that Booth wouldn't be burned to death. He was shot in the neck and didn't die for another 3 hours, Oswald was shot in the abdomen by a private citizen and died within minutes of arriving at the hospital.
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A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe , Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.
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I've always heard it as a month, not a week. Either way, it's just humor.