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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Thirty-Second President of the United States
1933-1945
Location: NE Corner of 5th and Main Streets
Born: January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York
Died: April 12, 1945, in Warm Springs, Georgia
Nickname: FDR
Franklin Roosevelt attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School, and chose to devote himself to public service like his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired. He won election to the New York Senate as a Democrat in 1910, was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1917, and became the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920.
Roosevelt was stricken with poliomyelitis in 1921, became Governor of New York in 1928, and was elected President in November of 1932, to the first of his four terms. He asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." The programs and reforms enacted during his terms were many including Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed.
When France fell and England came under siege in 1940, he began to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the Declaration of War on the Axis powers in Europe shortly after, Roosevelt organized and commanded the nation's manpower and resources for war during his last full term. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, and was succeeded in office by Vice President Harry Truman.
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