Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Attended Groton school (1896-1900) in Massachusetts; received a baccalaureate degree in history from Harvard University (1903); influenced by the ideas of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt; studied law at New York's Columbia University; admitted to the bar in 1907; practiced law as a clerck with Carter, Ledyard, and Milburn (1907-1910); elected to the New York State Senate as a Democrat (1911-1913); supported Woodrow Wilson's candidacy at the Democratic National Convention (1912); appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-1920) in the Cabinet of President Wilson; unsuccessful candidate at Democratic senatorial primaries (1914); unsuccessful candidate for Vice President on the Democratic ticket (1920); partner, Emmet, Marvin & Roosevelt, attorneys (1920); contracted poliomyelitis (1921), never regained the use of his legs; partner and vice president, Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland (1920-1928); partner, Roosevelt & O'Connor, attorneys (1924-1933); elected Governor of the State of New York (served 1 Jan 1929 - 1 Jan 1933); elected president of the United States (1932); faced the Great Depression, greatest crisis in American history since the Civil War; initiated the New Deal to combat the crisis; worked with a special session of Congress during the first "100 days" to pass recovery legislation; succeeded in overcoming the depression by establishing government agencies and introducing social aid programs; reelected president in 1936; reelected president in 1940; maintained neutrality in the Second World War through 1941; enacted a "lend-lease" bill (March 1941) to furnish aid to nations at war with Germany and Italy; led the nation into the world war after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (7 Dec 1941), followed by Germany's and Italy's declarations of war against the United States; actively carried out the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces; moved to create a "grand alliance" against the Axis powers through "The Declaration of the United Nations," (1 Jan 1942); the United States and its allies invaded North Africa in November 1942 and Sicily and Italy in 1943; the D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches in France, 6 Jun 1944, were followed by the allied invasion of Germany six months later; met with his political allies, Sir Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin at Tehran, Iran (November 1943) and again at the Yalta Conference in the Crimea, USSR (February 1945); despite suffering from advanced arteriosclerosis, reelected president in 1944; suffered a massive massive cerebral hemorrhage during a vacation at Warm Springs, Georgia, and died there on 12 Apr 1945. [1]