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Franklin D. Roosevelt Timeline

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

January 30, 1882

Franklin D. Roosevelt
UPI/Bettmann Archive

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is born in Hyde Park, New York. He is the only child of James and Sara Delano Roosevelt.

1900–07

Eleanor RooseveltEleanor Roosevelt in her wedding dress, 1905.
Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum website; version date 2009

Roosevelt enters Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1900. He is influenced by the political ideas of his fifth cousin, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who advocates a vastly increased role for the government in the nation’s economy. Before he graduates from Harvard in 1903, young Roosevelt falls in love with Theodore Roosevelt’s niece, Eleanor Roosevelt. The distant cousins marry on March 17, 1905, while Roosevelt is a student at Columbia University Law School in New York New York. He completes law school in 1907 and begins to practice with a leading New York law firm.

1910–13

Democratic leaders convince Roosevelt to run for New York state senate. Roosevelt wins a seat in the state senate and serves from 1911–13. In March 1913 he is appointed assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy.

1920

At the Democratic National Convention Roosevelt wins the nomination for vice president on the ticket with presidential nominee James M. Cox. They lose the election to Republican Warren G. Harding and his vice presidential running mate, Calvin Coolidge.

1921

Roosevelt is stricken with polio in August. For a time he is almost completely paralyzed. He fights to regain the use of his legs, however. In later years, with his legs encased in braces, he is able to walk a little but only by using a cane and usually with someone’s help.

November 6, 1928

Roosevelt runs for governor of New York on the Democratic ticket. He wins the election by slightly more than 26,000 votes.

1929–32

The Great Depression begins while Roosevelt is governor of New York. During his first term he focuses on tax relief for farmers and cheaper public utilities for consumers. The popularity of his programs lead to his reelection in 1930. He serves as governor from 1929–33.

November 8, 1932

Roosevelt is elected to the first of four presidential terms. Key to his victory over Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover is Roosevelt’s New Deal program for economic recovery. Along with the presidency, the Democrats win both houses of Congress.

March 4, 1933

Roosevelt is inaugurated as 32nd president of the United States and takes immediate action for economic recovery with “The Hundred Days,” the first phase of the New Deal.

1933–36

Franklin D. Roosevelt: “fireside chat”Franklin D. Roosevelt gives a radio broadcast (“fireside chat”), September 1934.
Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum website; version date 2009

The United States experiences some measure of economic recovery as a result of the initial New Deal programs. but millions of Americans are still unemployed. Roosevelt and Congress pass additional New Deal legislation—dubbed the “Second New Deal”—in 1935. Roosevelt is reelected to his second term on November 3, 1936.

1939–40

World War II breaks out in Europe in 1939, but the United States maintains a position of neutrality. Roosevelt is reelected for a third term on November 5, 1940.

December 7, 1941

Pearl Harbor attackThe USS *Shaw* explodes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
© Archive Photos

Japan, which had joined the Axis powers, attacks the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. The attack destroys or damages nearly the entire U.S. Pacific fleet and hundreds of airplanes and kills about 2,500 military personnel and civilians. The next day, at Roosevelt’s request, Congress declares war on Japan, and the United States officially enters World War II. On December 11 Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.

1944–45

Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin(From left) Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, 1945.
ITAR—TASS/Sovfoto

Roosevelt is elected to his fourth and final term as president on November 7, 1944. In February 1945 Roosevelt meets with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin at Yalta in Crimea to plan the end of the war.

April 12, 1945

Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage while in Warm Springs, Georgia, a few months before the end of World War II. He is later buried in his hometown of Hyde Park.

Franklin D. Roosevelt summary

The political career of Franklin Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Achievements

Franklin D. Roosevelt | Achievements

Democratic Party Summary

Democratic Party, in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Republican Party. The Democratic Party has changed significantly during its more than two centuries of existence. During the 19th century the party supported or tolerated slavery, and it opposed

president Summary

President, in government, the officer in whom the chief executive power of a nation is vested. The president of a republic is the head of state, but the actual power of the president varies from country to country; in the United States, Africa, and Latin America the presidential office is charged