115 Facts About Franklin Roosevelt

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

Franklin Roosevelt called for the creation of programs designed to produce relief, recovery, and reform.

Franklin Roosevelt instituted major regulatory reforms related to finance, communications, and labor.

Franklin Roosevelt frequently used radio to speak directly to the American people, giving 30 "fireside chat" radio addresses during his presidency and became the first American president to be televised.

Franklin Roosevelt'sadministration oversaw the construction of The Pentagon, initiated the development of the world's first atomic bomb, and worked with other Allied leaders to lay the groundwork for the United Nations and other post-war institutions.

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Franklin Roosevelt won re-election in the 1944 presidential election on his post-war recovery platform.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30,1882, in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York, to businessman James Roosevelt I and his second wife, Sara Ann Delano.

Franklin Roosevelt learned to ride; shoot; and sail; and play polo, tennis, and golf.

Franklin Roosevelt was relatively undistinguished as a student or athlete, but he became editor-in-chief of The Harvard Crimson daily newspaper, a position that required ambition, energy, and the ability to manage others.

Franklin Roosevelt's father died in 1900, causing great distress for him.

In 1903 Franklin Roosevelt proposed to Eleanor, and after resistance from his mother, they were married on March 17,1905.

Burns indicates young Franklin Roosevelt was self-assured and at ease in the upper class, while Eleanor was then shy and disliked social life, and initially stayed home to raise their children.

Franklin Roosevelt had several extra-marital affairs, including with Eleanor's social secretary Lucy Mercer, soon after she was hired in 1914, and discovered by Eleanor in 1918.

Franklin Roosevelt contemplated divorcing Eleanor, but Sara objected, and Lucy would not marry a divorced man with five children.

The emotional break in their marriage was so severe that when Franklin Roosevelt asked Eleanor in 1942—in light of his failing health—to come back home and live with him again, she refused.

Franklin Roosevelt broke his promise to Eleanor as he and Lucy maintained a formal correspondence, and began seeing each other again in 1941 or earlier.

Franklin Roosevelt cared little for the practice of law and told friends he planned to enter politics.

Franklin Roosevelt feared that opposition from Theodore could end his campaign, but Theodore encouraged his candidacy despite their party differences.

Franklin Roosevelt opposed Tammany Hall by supporting New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson's successful bid for the 1912 Democratic nomination.

The election became a three-way contest when Theodore Franklin Roosevelt left the Republican Party to launch a third party campaign against Wilson and sitting Republican President William Howard Taft.

Franklin Roosevelt overcame a bout of typhoid fever, and with help from journalist Louis McHenry Howe, he was re-elected in the 1912 elections.

Franklin Roosevelt had an affection for the Navy, was well-read on the subject, and was a most ardent supporter of a large, efficient force.

Franklin Roosevelt oversaw the Navy's civilian employees and earned the respect of union leaders for his fairness in resolving disputes.

In 1914, Franklin Roosevelt ran for the seat of retiring Republican Senator Elihu Root of New York.

Franklin Roosevelt was soundly defeated in the Democratic primary by Gerard, who in turn lost the general election to Republican James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr.

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Franklin Roosevelt refocused on the Navy Department, as World War I broke out in Europe in August 1914.

The Wilson administration initiated an expansion of the Navy after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German submarine, and Franklin Roosevelt helped establish the United States Navy Reserve and the Council of National Defense.

Franklin Roosevelt requested that he be allowed to serve as a naval officer, but Wilson insisted that he continue to serve as Assistant Secretary.

Franklin Roosevelt became very ill with influenza and complicating pneumonia, but recovered by the time the ship landed in New York.

Franklin Roosevelt accepted the loss without issue and later reflected that the relationships and goodwill that he built in the 1920 campaign proved to be a major asset in his 1932 campaign.

Franklin Roosevelt maintained contacts with the Democratic Party during the 1920s, and he remained active in New York politics while establishing contacts in the South, particularly in Georgia.

Franklin Roosevelt gave presidential nominating speeches for Smith at the 1924 and 1928 Democratic National Conventions; the speech at the 1924 convention marked a return to public life following his illness and convalescence.

Franklin Roosevelt accused Moses of using the name recognition of prominent individuals including Franklin Roosevelt to win political support for state parks, but then diverting funds to the ones Moses favored on Long Island, while Moses worked to block the appointment of Howe to a salaried position as the Taconic commission's secretary.

Franklin Roosevelt served on the commission until the end of 1928, and his contentious relationship with Moses continued as their careers progressed.

Franklin Roosevelt had the leisure time and the interest, and he drafted a plan for the contest.

Franklin Roosevelt'splan called for a new world organization that would replace the League of Nations.

Smith, the Democratic presidential nominee in the 1928 election, asked Franklin Roosevelt to run for governor of New York in the 1928 state election.

Franklin Roosevelt initially resisted, as he was reluctant to leave Warm Springs and feared a Republican landslide in 1928.

Franklin Roosevelt was joined on the campaign trail by associates Samuel Rosenman, Frances Perkins, and James Farley.

Franklin Roosevelt proposed the construction of hydroelectric power plants and addressed the ongoing farm crisis of the 1920s.

Franklin Roosevelt saw the seriousness of the situation and established a state employment commission.

Franklin Roosevelt proposed an economic relief package and the establishment of the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration to distribute those funds.

Franklin Roosevelt began an investigation into corruption in New York City among the judiciary, the police force, and organized crime, prompting the creation of the Seabury Commission.

Franklin Roosevelt supported reforestation with the Hewitt Amendment in 1931, which gave birth to New York's State Forest system.

Franklin Roosevelt rallied the progressive supporters of the Wilson administration while appealing to many conservatives, establishing himself as the leading candidate in the South and West.

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The chief opposition to Franklin Roosevelt's candidacy came from Northeastern conservatives, Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas and Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic presidential nominee.

Franklin Roosevelt entered the convention with a delegate lead due to his success in the 1932 Democratic primaries, but most delegates entered the convention unbound to any particular candidate.

Franklin Roosevelt flew in from New York to Chicago after learning that he had won the nomination, becoming the first major-party presidential nominee to accept the nomination in person.

Franklin Roosevelt'sappearance was essential, to show himself as vigorous, despite the ravaging disease that disabled him physically.

Franklin Roosevelt'sstatements attacked the incumbent and included no other specific policies or programs.

Franklin Roosevelt's victory was enabled by the creation of the New Deal coalition, small farmers, the Southern whites, Catholics, big city political machines, labor unions, northern African Americans, Jews, intellectuals, and political liberals.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected in November 1932 but like his predecessors did not take office until the following March.

Franklin Roosevelt refused Hoover's request to develop a joint program to stop the economic decline, claiming that it would tie his hands and that Hoover had the power to act.

William H Woodin, a Republican industrialist close to Roosevelt, was the choice for Secretary of the Treasury, while Roosevelt chose Senator Cordell Hull of Tennessee as Secretary of State.

When Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4,1933, the U S was at the nadir of the worst depression in its history.

On his second day in office, Franklin Roosevelt declared a four-day national "bank holiday", to end the run by depositors seeking to withdraw funds.

Franklin Roosevelt saw the establishment a number of agencies and measures designed to provide relief for the unemployed and others.

Franklin Roosevelt expanded Hoover's Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which financed railroads and industry.

Franklin Roosevelt set up the Agricultural Adjustment Administration to increase commodity prices, by paying farmers to leave land uncultivated and cut herds.

Franklin Roosevelt worked with Senator Norris to create the largest government-owned industrial enterprise in American history—the Tennessee Valley Authority —which built dams and power stations, controlled floods, and modernized agriculture and home conditions in the poverty-stricken Tennessee Valley.

Franklin Roosevelt tried to keep his campaign promise by cutting the federal budget.

Franklin Roosevelt expected that his party would lose several races in the 1934 Congressional elections, as the president's party had done in most previous midterm elections, but the Democrats picked up seats in both houses of Congress.

Franklin Roosevelt consolidated the various relief organizations, though some, like the PWA, continued to exist.

Franklin Roosevelt won re-nomination with little opposition at the 1936 Democratic National Convention, while his allies overcame Southern resistance to permanently abolish the long-established rule that had required Democratic presidential candidates to win the votes of two-thirds of the delegates rather than a simple majority.

Franklin Roosevelt lost high-income voters, especially businessmen and professionals, but made major gains among the poor and minorities.

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Franklin Roosevelt carried 102 of the country's 106 cities with a population of 100,000 or more.

Franklin Roosevelt proposed the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, which would have allowed him to appoint an additional Justice for each incumbent Justice over the age of 70; in 1937, there were six Supreme Court Justices over the age of 70.

Franklin Roosevelt did manage to pass some legislation, including the Housing Act of 1937, a second Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which was the last major piece of New Deal legislation.

Beyond this Franklin Roosevelt recommended to a special congressional session only a permanent national farm act, administrative reorganization, and regional planning measures, all of which were leftovers from a regular session.

Franklin Roosevelt failed badly, managing to defeat only one of the ten targeted, a conservative Democrat from New York City.

Franklin Roosevelt had a lifelong interest in the environment and conservation starting with his youthful interest in forestry on his family estate.

When Franklin Roosevelt was Governor of New York, the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration was essentially a state-level predecessor of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps, with 10,000 or more men building fire trails, combating soil erosion and planting tree seedlings in marginal farmland in the state of New York.

In December 1933, Franklin Roosevelt signed the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, renouncing the right to intervene unilaterally in the affairs of Latin American countries.

Franklin Roosevelt normalized relations with the Soviet Union, which the United States had refused to recognize since the 1920s.

When World War II began in September 1939 with Germany's invasion of Poland and Britain and France's subsequent declaration of war upon Germany, Franklin Roosevelt sought ways to assist Britain and France militarily.

Isolationist leaders like Charles Lindbergh and Senator William Borah successfully mobilized opposition to Franklin Roosevelt's proposed repeal of the Neutrality Act, but Franklin Roosevelt won Congressional approval of the sale of arms on a cash-and-carry basis.

Franklin Roosevelt forged a close personal relationship with Churchill, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in May 1940.

In July 1940, Roosevelt appointed two interventionist Republican leaders, Henry L Stimson and Frank Knox, as Secretaries of War and the Navy, respectively.

In September 1940, Franklin Roosevelt openly defied the Neutrality Acts by reaching the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, which, in exchange for military base rights in the British Caribbean Islands, gave 50 WWI American destroyers to Britain.

Franklin Roosevelt refused to give a definitive statement as to his willingness to be a candidate again, and he even indicated to some ambitious Democrats, such as James Farley, that he would not run for a third term and that they could seek the Democratic nomination.

At the July 1940 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Franklin Roosevelt easily swept aside challenges from Farley and Vice President Garner, who had turned against Franklin Roosevelt in his second term because of his liberal economic and social policies.

Franklin Roosevelt maintained close personal control of all major diplomatic and military decisions, working closely with his generals and admirals, the war and Navy departments, the British, and even with the Soviet Union.

In military affairs, Roosevelt worked most closely with Secretary Henry L Stimson at the War Department, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall, and Admiral William D Leahy.

In July 1941, after Japan occupied the remainder of French Indochina, Franklin Roosevelt cut off the sale of oil to Japan, depriving Japan of more than 95 percent of its oil supply.

The Franklin Roosevelt administration was unwilling to reverse the policy, and Secretary of State Hull blocked a potential summit between Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe.

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Franklin Roosevelt had expected that the Japanese would attack either the Dutch East Indies or Thailand.

In late December 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met at the Arcadia Conference, which established a joint strategy between the U S and Britain.

In 1942, Franklin Roosevelt formed a new body, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which made the final decisions on American military strategy.

Franklin Roosevelt avoided micromanaging the war and let his top military officers make most decisions.

Franklin Roosevelt avoided the State Department and conducted high-level diplomacy through his aides, especially Harry Hopkins, whose influence was bolstered by his control of the Lend Lease funds.

Franklin Roosevelt feared the consequences of allowing Germany to have sole possession of the technology and authorized preliminary research into nuclear weapons.

Franklin Roosevelt coined the term "Four Policemen" to refer to the "Big Four" Allied powers of World War II, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China.

Concerned that their forces were not yet ready for an invasion of France, Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt decided to delay such an invasion until at least 1943 and instead focus on a landing in North Africa, known as Operation Torch.

Franklin Roosevelt did not push for the immediate evacuation of Soviet soldiers from Poland, but he won the issuance of the Declaration on Liberated Europe, which promised free elections in countries that had been occupied by Germany.

At the conference, Franklin Roosevelt announced that he would only accept the unconditional surrender of Germany, Japan, and Italy.

In contrast to Hitler, Franklin Roosevelt took no direct part in the tactical naval operations, though he approved strategic decisions.

Franklin Roosevelt gave way in part to insistent demands from the public and Congress that more effort be devoted against Japan, but he always insisted on Germany first.

In 1943, Roosevelt established the Office of War Mobilization to oversee the home front; the agency was led by James F Byrnes, who came to be known as the "assistant president" due to his influence.

Roosevelt made it clear before the convention that he was seeking another term, and on the lone presidential ballot of the convention, Roosevelt won the vast majority of delegates, although a minority of Southern Democrats voted for Harry F Byrd.

Franklin Roosevelt, as most observers could see from his weight loss and haggard appearance, was a tired man in 1944.

When Franklin Roosevelt returned to the United States from the Yalta Conference, many were shocked to see how old, thin and frail he looked.

Franklin Roosevelt's declining physical health had been kept secret from the public.

Franklin Roosevelt'sdeath was met with shock and grief across the world.

Franklin Roosevelt was viewed as a hero by many African Americans, Catholics, and Jews, and he was highly successful in attracting large majorities of these voters into his New Deal coalition.

Franklin Roosevelt won strong support from Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans, but not Japanese Americans, as he presided over their internment during World War II.

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The rate of repatriations fell for all immigrants, especially for Mexicans, after Franklin Roosevelt became president, who instituted more lenient policies towards immigrants, especially for well-settled ones.

Franklin Roosevelt stopped short of joining NAACP leaders in pushing for federal anti-lynching legislation, as he believed that such legislation was unlikely to pass and that his support for it would alienate Southern congressmen.

In 1941, Franklin Roosevelt established the Fair Employment Practices Committee to implement Executive Order 8802, which prohibited racial and religious discrimination in employment among defense contractors.

On February 19,1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which relocated 110,000 Japanese-American citizens and immigrants, most of whom lived on the Pacific Coast.

In 1923, as a member of the Harvard board of directors, Franklin Roosevelt decided there were too many Jewish students at Harvard University and helped institute a quota to limit the number of Jews admitted to Harvard.

Franklin Roosevelt is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of the United States, as well as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.

The rapid expansion of government programs that occurred during Franklin Roosevelt's term redefined the role of the government in the United States, and Franklin Roosevelt's advocacy of government social programs was instrumental in redefining liberalism for coming generations.

Franklin Roosevelt firmly established the United States' leadership role on the world stage, with his role in shaping and financing World War II.

Long after his death, new lines of attack criticized Franklin Roosevelt's policies regarding helping the Jews of Europe, incarcerating the Japanese on the West Coast, and opposing anti-lynching legislation.

Franklin Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park is a National Historic Site and home to his Presidential library.