Franklin D.

Roosevelt
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) was
the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world
events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a
time of worldwide economic crisis and world war.
• The only American president elected to more than two terms (he was
elected to four but only served three full terms, dying in his fourth
term), he was often referred to by his initials, FDR.
• Roosevelt won his first of four presidential elections in 1932, while the
United States was in the depths of the Great Depression.
• FDR's combination of optimism and economic activism is often credited
with keeping the country's economic crisis from developing into a
political crisis.
• He led the United States through most of World War II, and died in
office of a cerebral hemorrhage shortly before the war ended.
• In his first term (1933–37) FDR launched the New Deal, a very large,
complex interlocking set of programs designed to produce relief
(especially government jobs for the unemployed), recovery (of the
economy), and reform (by which he meant regulation of Wall Street,
banks and transportation).
• The Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his packing
the Supreme Court or passing much new legislation; it abolished most
of the relief programs when unemployment practically ended during
World War II.
• Most of the regulations on business were ended about 1975-85, except
for the regulation of Wall Street by the Securities and Exchange
Commission, which still exists.
• The major surviving General Welfare clause program is Social Security
(United States), which Congress passed in 1935.
• As World War II loomed after 1938, with the Japanese invasion of China
and the aggressions of Nazi Germany, FDR gave strong diplomatic and
financial support to China and Britain, while remaining officially
neutral.
• His goal was to make America the "Arsenal of Democracy"--supplying
the munitions while others did the fighting.
• In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-
Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany, with Great
Britain.
• He secured a near-unanimous declaration of war against Japan after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, calling it a
"date that will live in infamy."
• He supervised the mobilization of the US economy to support the Allied
war effort, taking criticism for fumbles early on, but saw
unemployment evaporate and the industrial economy soar to heights
no one ever expected.
• Roosevelt dominated the American political scene, not only during the
twelve years of his presidency, but for decades afterward.
• He orchestrated the realignment of voters that created the Fifth Party
System.
• FDR's New Deal Coalition united together labor unions, big city
machines, white ethnics, welfare recipients, African Americans and
rural white Southerners.
• Roosevelt's diplomatic impact also resonated on the world stage long
after his death, with the United Nations and Bretton Woods as examples
of his administration's wide-ranging impact.
• Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the greatest U.S.
Presidents.
• Roosevelt is an Anglicized form of the Dutch surname 'Van Rosevelt,'
or 'Van Rosenvelt', meaning 'from field of roses.'
• Although some use an Anglicized spelling pronunciation of /ˈruːzəvɛlt/,
that is, with the vowels of rue and felt, Franklin used [ˈroʊzəvəlt], with
the vowel of the English rose.
• One of the wealthiest and oldest families in New York State, the
Roosevelts distinguished themselves in areas other than politics.
• Franklin's first cousin, Ellen Roosevelt, was the 1890 U.S. Open
Championships women's singles and doubles tennis champion and is a
member of theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame.
• His mother named him after her favorite uncle Franklin Delano.
• The progenitor of the Delano family in the Americas of 1621
was Philippe de la Noye, the first Huguenot to land in the New World,
whose family name was Anglicized to Delano.