By Benjamin Snow
Early days
As president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt presided over two of the darkest times in American history: The Great Depression and World War II. As an individual, Roosevelt's confidence and vitality made him one of the most adored icons of the 20th century.
Roosevelt was born in 1882 in Hyde Park, New York, which is now a historic site. He received a law degree from Harvard University and Columbia Law School, and wed Anna Eleanor Roosevelt on St. Patrick's Day 1905.
Roosevelt’s political career began when he was elected to the Senate of New York in 1910. President Woodrow Wilson selected him to be Assistant Secretary of The Navy, and in 1920 Roosevelt won the vice presidential nomination.
Nearly dying but then making a comeback In August 1921, at age 39, Roosevelt contracted polio. He never walked again. The fact that Roosevelt had become ill did not stop his political interests.
Reentering public life
In November 1932, FDR was elected president for the first of four terms (something that is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution today.) By March of that year, 13,000,000 people were unemployed, and banks were rarely open.
Within the first 100 days of his first term, Roosevelt signed into law government programs that were collectively known as the New Deal Program, which could help Americans out of extreme poverty by use of The Tennessee Valley Authority. The Tennessee Valley Authority program was an immense help to people in seven states during the Great Depression because it allowed people to have jobs building dams to create electrical power.
Roosevelt dies
In 1936, FDR was re-elected president in a landslide. However, in his later years in office more turmoil had yet to come. Dec. 7, 1941, was the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed, which began the saga of the United States being involved in the war. In the months before his death, Roosevelt thought of making relations between the United States and Russia in hopes of resolving the conflict. Unfortunately he passed away too soon to see the end of the bloodshed. On April 12, 1945, he died In Warm Springs Georgia of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 63.
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