Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, is an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945.

A member of the Democratic Party, he wins a record four presidential elections and becomes a central figure in world events during the first half of the twentieth century.

Roosevelt directes the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history.

As a dominant leader of his party, he builds the New Deal Coalition, which realigns American politics into the Fifth Party System and defines American liberalism throughout the middle third of the twentieth century.

His third and fourth terms are dominated by the Second World War, which ends shortly after he dies in office.

Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York, to the Roosevelt family made well known by the reputation of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, and William Henry Aspinwall.

FDR graduated from Groton School and Harvard College and attended Columbia Law School but left after passing the bar exam to practice law in New York City.

In 1905, he married his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt.

They have six children, of whom five survive into adulthood.

He wins election to the New York State Senate in 1910, then serves as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during the First World War.

Roosevelt is James M. Cox's running mate on the Democratic Party's 1920 national ticket, but Cox is defeated by Republican Warren G. Harding

In 1921, Roosevelt contracts a paralytic illness, believed at the time to be polio, and his legs become permanently paralyzed.

While attempting to recover from his condition, Roosevelt founds the treatment center in Warm Springs, Georgia, for people with poliomyelitis.

In spite of being unable to walk unaided, Roosevelt returns to public office by winning election as Governor of New York in 1928.

He serves as governor from 1929 to 1933, promoting programs to combat the economic crisis besetting the United States.

In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeats Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide.

Roosevelt takes office in the midst of the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in U.S. history.

During the first hundred days of the 73rd United States Congress, Roosevelt spearheads unprecedented federal legislation and issues a profusion of executive orders that institute the New Deal—a variety of programs designed to produce relief, recovery, and reform.

He creates numerous programs to provide relief to the unemployed and farmers while seeking economic recovery with the National Recovery Administration and other programs.

He also institutes major regulatory reforms related to finance, communications, and labor, and presides over the end of Prohibition.

He harnesses radio to speak directly to the American people, giving thirty "fireside chat" radio addresses during his presidency and becoming the first American president to be televised.

With the economy having improved rapidly from 1933 to 1936, Roosevelt wins a landslide reelection in 1936.

However, the economy relapses into a deep recession in 1937 and 1938.

After the 1936 election, Roosevelt seeks passage of the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 (the "court packing plan"), which would expanded the size of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that forms in 1937 prevents passage of the bill and blocks the implementation of further New Deal programs and reforms.

Major surviving programs and legislation implemented under Roosevelt include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Social Security, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

The United States reelects FDR in 1940 for his third term, making him the only U.S. President to serve for more than two terms.

With the Second World War looming after 1938, Roosevelt gives strong diplomatic and financial support to China, the United Kingdom and eventually the Soviet Union while the U.S. remains officially neutral.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, an event he famously calls "a date which will live in infamy", Roosevelt obtains a congressional declaration of war on Japan, and, a few days later, on Germany and Italy.

Assisted by his top aide Harry Hopkins and with very strong national support, he works closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in leading the Allied Powers against the Axis Powers.

Roosevelt supervises the mobilization of the U.S. economy to support the war effort, and implements a Europe first strategy, making the defeat of Germany a priority over that of Japan.

He also initiates the development of the world's first atomic bomb, and works with the other Allied leaders to lay the groundwork for the United Nations and other post-war institutions.

Roosevelt wins reelection in 1944, but with his physical health declining during the war years, he dies in April 1945, less than three months into his fourth term.

The Axis Powers surrender to the Allies in the months following Roosevelt's death, during the presidency of his successor, Harry S. Truman.

He is usually rated by scholars among the nation's greatest presidents, after George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but has also been subject to substantial criticism.

No related events match the current filters.