32nd president of the United States (19331945)
Born: January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York
Died: Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1945
Political Party: Democrat

Franklin D. Roosevelt served longer in office than any other president. He broke the tradition that limited presidents to two terms and was elected to four consecutive terms. As president, Roosevelt led the country through the Great Depression (19291939) and World War II (19391945). He expanded the role of the federal government, and his fireside radio chats from his home in Hyde Park, New York, helped reassure Americans in troubled times.

Though physically disabled by polio, Roosevelt seemed to have unlimited energy and enthusiasm for his work as president. He and his wife, Eleanor, created a unique political partnership. Mrs. Roosevelt traveled the country and the world, and told her husband what she had heard and seen.

Franklin Roosevelt, often called FDR, was a member of an aristocratic New York family and a graduate of Harvard University. He joined the Democratic Party and, in 1910, won a seat in the New York State senate. As a Democrat, he supported Woodrow Wilson for president. Grateful for Roosevelt's support, President Wilson appointed Roosevelt assistant secretary of the navy.

In 1920, Roosevelt won the Democratic nomination for vice-president. Although the Republicans won a landslide victory, the campaign made Roosevelt nationally known.

By 1921, it seemed that Franklin Delano Roosevelta tall, handsome, and privileged young man with influential family and friendshad a brilliant future ahead of him. Then suddenly, in August 1921, while vacationing in Canada, tragedy struck. Roosevelt became ill with polio, suffered great pain, and was almost totally paralyzed for a time. Despite great efforts, he never walked on his own again. His mother suggested that he retire to the family's home in Hyde Park, but Roosevelt's wife Eleanor advised him to continue in politics.

In 1928, Roosevelt agreed to run for governor of New York State, despite his handicap. Throughout the campaign for governor, he showed that he was a serious politician who understood the hardships people faced. Roosevelt won the election.

During his two terms as governor, Roosevelt became known for his ability to use government to help people through financial problems. He supported unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, and other liberal programs.

In 1932, Roosevelt won the Democratic nomination for president. In his acceptance speech, he pledged a "new deal" for the American people. Roosevelt defeated President Herbert Hoover easily. The Democrats outnumbered Republicans in both houses of Congress.

By the time Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, the American people faced terrible economic hardship. Most banks had shut down, and 13 million people were without jobs. To make matters worse, a severe drought made farmers especially desperate.

In Roosevelt's first term as president, he sent many programs to the U.S. Congress. These programs, known as the New Deal, provided help for people hurt by the depression. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created to build dams and power plants in the Tennessee River valley. Eventually, the TVA supplied cheap electricity to poor areas in seven states. The Social Security Act provided unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and government old-age pensions to workers.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was another program that employed more than two million workers a month. They built roads, bridges, dams, and large public buildings across America. The WPA also employed writers, artists, and musicians. The newly created CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) worked for the government in national parks and fighting forest fires.

New Deal programs did not entirely solve the problem of the Great Depression. Opposition to these huge spending programs grew. It took a war to really put Americans back to work.

In 1939, World War II broke out in Europe. Many people in the U.S. Congress called isolationists wanted the U.S. to stay out of the affairs of other countries and did not wish to be involved in another European war. Roosevelt wanted to stay out of the war, but he also wanted to help Britain and France in their fight against Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. In 1940, after France fell to Germany. Roosevelt convinced Congress to provide Britain with arms to fight the war. This aid was called the Lend Lease Program.

In his election campaign of 1940, Roosevelt promised not to send Americans to fight a foreign war. That changed on December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. Much of the U.S. Pacific fleet was destroyed, and about 2,400 people were killed. On December 8, Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. In his speech to Congress, Roosevelt declared that December 7th was a "date that will live in infamy."

On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The United States was now at war with the Axis Powers led by Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Roosevelttogether with Churchill (the Prime Minister of Britain) and Stalin (the leader of the Soviet Union)led the alliance of countries fighting the Axis Powers. Millions of U.S. soldiers went off to war in Europe and in the Pacific. American war industries geared up to produce more materials and hire more workers. The demand for planes, tanks, ammunition, and supplies, including food, brought an end to the Great Depression.

As the war continued, Roosevelt planned to create an international organization that would settle disputes between countries in a peaceful way. It would be called the United Nations.

Roosevelt did not live to see the end of the war or the founding of the United Nations. He died on April 12, 1945, in Warm Springs, Georgia. Harry Truman, Roosevelt's vice president, took over as the new president, while a grieving nation mourned the fallen leader who had led them through two major crises.