John F. Kennedy Jr. remembered, 13 years after his death

(CBS News) On July 16, 1999 - 13 years ago today - John F. Kennedy Jr. died when the small plane he was piloting to a family wedding crashed into the ocean off the Massachusetts coast.

The son of former President John F. Kennedy was just 38 years old. His wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, also died in the crash.

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Born in 1960, just days after his father's election, JFK Jr. spent his earliest years in the White House. When his father was assassinated in 1963, he moved to New York City with his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, and sister, Caroline.

As an adult, he earned a law degree from New York University went on to and co-found the political/lifestyle magazine George. He was also named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1988.

He married Carolyn Bessette on Sept. 21, 1996, on Georgia's Cumberland Island. Before that, he had been one of the country's most eligible bachelors.

JFK Jr.'s death made headlines, as Americans mourned the loss of another Kennedy. During a public memorial service held on July 23, 1999, his uncle, Ted Kennedy - who lost his battle with brain cancer in 2009 - said: "We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But like his father, he had every gift but length of years."

In the past 13 years, the country has also said goodbye to other members of the Kennedy family, including Rosemary Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Kara Kennedy Allen and Mary Richardson Kennedy.