Happy Birthday FDR
On January 30, 1882 (131 years ago today) Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York. His father, James Roosevelt, and his mother, Sara Ann Delano, were sixth cousins and both were from wealthy old New York families. They were of mostly English descent; Roosevelt's great-grandfather, James Roosevelt, was of Dutch ancestry, and his mother's maiden name, Delano, originated with a French Huguenot immigrant of the 17th century. Franklin was their only child.
Roosevelt (often referred by his initials FDR) was the 32nd President of the United States serving from 193 until his death on April 12, 1945. As president he had a lot on his plate: a great depression and then a world war. He is the only American president elected to more than two terms.
Using the peppy popular song "Happy Days Are Here Again" as his campaign theme, FDR defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover in November 1932, at the height of the Great Depression. Afflicted by polio, he did not let this disability affect his work ethic. In his first hundred days in office, which began March 4, 1933, Roosevelt pushed for major legislation and issued a number of executive orders if furtherance of a program called "the New Deal" in which a variety of programs sought to produce economic relief. These included government jobs for the unemployed and reform through regulation of Wall Street, banks and transportation. In 1937 he was prevented from packing the Supreme Court, but his efforts seemed to cause the courts to fall in line with his proposals. Many of his major initiatives survive to this day, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
With the apporach of a world war, with the Japanese invasion of China and the aggression of Nazi Germany, FDR gave diplomatic and financial support to China and Great Britain, while remaining officially neutral. His goal was to make America what he called the "Arsenal of Democracy" (the supplier of munitions to the Allies.) In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany with Britain. With very strong national support, he declared war on Japan and Germany after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, calling it a "date which will live in infamy". As an active military leader, Roosevelt supervised the war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and the development of the world's first atom bomb. In 1942 Roosevelt ordered the internment of 100,000 Japanese American civilians. Unemployment dropped to 2% and the industrial economy grew rapidly to new heights as millions of people moved to new jobs in war centers, and 16 million men and 300,000 women were drafted or volunteered for military service.
FDR died at Warm Springs, Georgia shortly after his fourth inauguration as preasident. Even after his death, the political coalition that he had forged remained, consisting of labor unions, big city machines, ethnic groups, African Americans and rural white Southerners. Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the top three U.S. Presidents.
Roosevelt (often referred by his initials FDR) was the 32nd President of the United States serving from 193 until his death on April 12, 1945. As president he had a lot on his plate: a great depression and then a world war. He is the only American president elected to more than two terms.
Using the peppy popular song "Happy Days Are Here Again" as his campaign theme, FDR defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover in November 1932, at the height of the Great Depression. Afflicted by polio, he did not let this disability affect his work ethic. In his first hundred days in office, which began March 4, 1933, Roosevelt pushed for major legislation and issued a number of executive orders if furtherance of a program called "the New Deal" in which a variety of programs sought to produce economic relief. These included government jobs for the unemployed and reform through regulation of Wall Street, banks and transportation. In 1937 he was prevented from packing the Supreme Court, but his efforts seemed to cause the courts to fall in line with his proposals. Many of his major initiatives survive to this day, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
With the apporach of a world war, with the Japanese invasion of China and the aggression of Nazi Germany, FDR gave diplomatic and financial support to China and Great Britain, while remaining officially neutral. His goal was to make America what he called the "Arsenal of Democracy" (the supplier of munitions to the Allies.) In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany with Britain. With very strong national support, he declared war on Japan and Germany after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, calling it a "date which will live in infamy". As an active military leader, Roosevelt supervised the war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and the development of the world's first atom bomb. In 1942 Roosevelt ordered the internment of 100,000 Japanese American civilians. Unemployment dropped to 2% and the industrial economy grew rapidly to new heights as millions of people moved to new jobs in war centers, and 16 million men and 300,000 women were drafted or volunteered for military service.
FDR died at Warm Springs, Georgia shortly after his fourth inauguration as preasident. Even after his death, the political coalition that he had forged remained, consisting of labor unions, big city machines, ethnic groups, African Americans and rural white Southerners. Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the top three U.S. Presidents.