US Presidents · 20th century

Franklin D. Roosevelt

1882–1945 · American

Democratic

In office: 1933–1945

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president, led the United States through the Great Depression and most of the Second World War. His New Deal transformed the role of the federal government, and he remains the only president elected four times, which prompted the two-term limit of the 22nd Amendment.

How to spot them

▸FDR; the New Deal, the Hundred Days and the fireside chats
▸'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself'; 'a date which will live in infamy'
▸Elected four times (1932, 1936, 1940, 1944); died in office at Warm Springs, Georgia
▸Polio survivor; husband of Eleanor; distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt; his Scottish terrier Fala

In office

The New Deal and the Hundred Days (1933)

Burst of relief, recovery and reform legislation after taking office in the Depression

'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself' (1933)

Line from the first inaugural address, 4 March 1933

The fireside chats (1933–1944)

Informal radio addresses to the nation

Social Security Act (1935)

Created old-age pensions and unemployment insurance

The court-packing plan (1937)

Failed proposal to add up to six justices to the Supreme Court

The Four Freedoms speech (1941)

State of the Union naming freedom of speech, of worship, from want and from fear

Lend-Lease and the Atlantic Charter (1941)

Aid to Britain and allies before US entry into the war; joint statement of aims with Churchill

'A date which will live in infamy' (1941)

Speech to Congress the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Key ideas

The New Deal's 'three Rs': relief, recovery and reform, through agencies such as the CCC, TVA, WPA and SEC
Good Neighbor policy of non-intervention towards Latin America
His four election wins led to the 22nd Amendment (ratified 1951) limiting presidents to two terms

Quick-fire facts

•32nd president; the only one elected more than twice
•Contracted polio (paralytic illness) in 1921 at Campobello Island; he rarely allowed himself to be seen in a wheelchair
•Eleanor Roosevelt was his fifth cousin once removed and the niece of Theodore Roosevelt
•Served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Wilson and as Governor of New York before the presidency
•In February 1933 Giuseppe Zangara fired at him in Miami, fatally wounding Chicago mayor Anton Cermak
•Signed Executive Order 9066 (1942), which led to the internment of Japanese Americans
•Attended the Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945) conferences with Churchill and Stalin
•Died on 12 April 1945 at Warm Springs, Georgia, weeks before victory in Europe; succeeded by Harry S. Truman
•His second inauguration (1937) was the first held on 20 January; he is commemorated on the US dime

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Sources

Miller Center, University of Virginia — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Encyclopaedia Britannica — Franklin D. Roosevelt