KEY DATES:
- 1882: Roosevelt born in Hyde Park, NY on January 30
- 1932 : Roosevelt elected President on November 8 / John Nance Garner elected Vice President
- 1933: Roosevelt sworn in on March 4, for first term as
- president.
- 1936: Roosevelt reelected on November 3/ John Nance Garner
- elected Vice President
- 1940: Roosevelt reelected / Henry A. Wallace
- elected Vice President
- 1944: FDR reelected on November 7 / Harry Truman elected Vice President
- 1945 : Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, GA on April 12, from a cerebral hemorrhage. Harry Truman becomes President.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884-1962): She married Franklin Roosevelt on March 17, 1905. They had one daughter and five sons (one of whom died in infancy). She had special interest in the needs of children, minorities, women and the poor. After her husband developed polio, Mrs. Roosevelt did much traveling on his behalf. Doris Kearns Goodwin says, "During the worst years of the Depression, Eleanor traveled nearly two hundred days a year, visiting with southern blacks and migrant workers... absorbing an unprecedented knowledge that allowed her to determine which of her husband's programs were working or failing, wasteful or underfunded. And when she returned, in contrast to the filtered accounts that deferential subordinates too often provide their superiors, she was brutally honest in telling Franklin what she had seen, giving him the base of knowledge he needed to alter his programs or change his approach."
POLIO: In August 1921 Roosevelt was sticken with paralysis while vacationing at his summer home on Campobello Island off the coast of Maine. His ailment was diagnosed as polio. During his presidency, Roosevelt was confined to a wheelchair or stood with the aid of steel leg braces. He tried numerous treatments, but was never able to walk on his power again.
THE DEPRESSION: A period of economic collapse in the U.S. economy which followed the stock market crash of 1929. It was marked by bank and busines failures and widespread unemployment
"THE NEW DEAL": A package of programs introduced by President Roosevelt aimed at ending the Depression by stimulating the economy and putting people back to work. The "New Deal" programs were enacted during the first hundred days of the Roosevelt Adminstration.
NRA: The National Recovery Administration was set up under the
- March 9: Emergency Banking Act
- March 20: Economy Act
- March 31: Civilian Conservation Corps established
- April 19: End of the gold standard
- May 12: Emergency Farm Mortgage Act
- May 18: Tennessee Valley Authority established
- May 27: Truth in Securities Act
- June 13: Home Owners' Loan Act
- June 16: National Industrial Recovery Act and Farm Credit Act
National Industrial Recovery Act. Its aim was to stabilize production and prices through government regulation of wages and working conditions. The symbol of the NRA campaign was a Blue Eagle thunderbird. Employers who signed NRA agreements were allowed to display the Blue Eagle at their businesses. Many business people opposed the effort as representing excessive government regulation.
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