Character Above All: Harry S. Truman Glossary

HARRY S. TRUMAN

33rd President of the United States

KEY DATES:

1884: Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri on May 8.
1935: Truman begins serving as a Democratic U.S. Senator from Missouri on January 3. He served in the Senate until January 17, 1945.
1944 - November 7: Franklin Roosevelt elected to his fourth term as President on November 7. Harry Truman, a senator from Missouri, is elected Vice President.
1945: Franklin Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemhorrage on April 12. Harry Truman becomes president.
1948 : Truman is elected president in his own right on Novmeber 2.

BATTLE OF THE ARGONNE: Also known as Meuse-Argonne, the battle led to the end of World War I. It was a wide-ranging offensive along the entire German line aimed at cutting off supplies to the German forces. Fighting lasted 47 days and involved 1,200,000 U.S. soldiers. It ended with the signing of an armistice agreement on November 11, 1918.
BESS: Elizabeth Virginia ("Bess") Wallace married Harry Truman on June 28, 1919 in Independence, Missouri, after he returned from the War. They had one daughter, (Mary) Margaret who was born in 1924.
VOSGES MOUNTAINS: A mountain range in eastern France.
DIXIECRATS: The name given a group of Southern Democrats who bolted from the party in 1948 to form the States' Rights Democratic Party. The group was angered by President Truman's civil rights policies. The "Dixiecrats" held their own convention in Birmingham, Alabama and nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond as their candidate for president.
DOUGLAS MACARTHUR (1880-1964): A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, MacArthur was the youngest full general in U.S. history. A leading military figure of World War II and the Korean War, he was relieved of command in Korea by President Truman in April 1951 after MacArthur publicly disagreed with U.S. policy.

THOMAS DEWEY (1902-1971): Governor of New York from 1942-54. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948.