Thomas Woodrow Wilson

Born in the family of Presbyterian minister; descendant of of Scotch-Irish immigrants; educated at Davidson College near Charlotte in North Carolina and at Princeton University (1875-1879); received a baccalaureate degree in 1879; graduated from the Law School of the University of Virginia; practiced law in Atlanta, Georgia; entered graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1883; received Ph.D. in government and history (1886); taught at Bryn Mawr College (1885-1888), Wesleyan University in Connecticut (1888-1890); joined the faculty of Princeton University (1890) as a professor of jurisprudence and political economy; elected president of Princeton University (1902 - 1910); became widely known for his ideas on reforming education; accepted nomination as a Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey; Governor of the State of New Jersey (17 Jan 1911 - 1 Mar 1913); earned national reputation for his program of reforms; elected President of the United States on the Democratic ticket (1912); set out the principles of his politics in New Freedom program; implemented tariff reform (Underwood Tariff Act, 1913), banking and monetary reform (Federal Reserve Act, 1913, created a federal reserve system), antitrust reform (Federal Trade Commission Act, 1914, to prevent business practices that would lead to monopoly); maintain neutrality in the first years of the First World War; reelected president in 1916; asked for declaration of war (2 Apr 1917) after unrestricted submarine warfare announced by Germany; Congress granted request and declared the state of war (6 Apr 1917) between the United States and the German Reich; raised army by conscription under the Selective Service Act, 1917; seized the initiative on war aims with his "Fourteen Points" speech of 8 Jan 1918; American Expeditionary Force helped to end the war in Europe in November 1918; attended the Paris Peace Conference resulting in signing the Treaty of Versailles (28 Jun 1919); secured the adoption of the Covenant of the League of Nations (1919); vainly sought American public support for the Treaty; suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed on his left side (2 Oct 1919); never fully recovered from the stroke; failed to secure the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles by Congress (1919, 1920); Senate declined to approve American acceptance of the League of Nations; Nobel Prize for Peace awarded in December 1920; lived in retirement after the expiration of presidential term.