Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"
FDR growing up
Franklin Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York on January 30, 1882. Roosevelts parents James and Sara Roosevelt private tutored FDR until 1896 when he started to attend Groton. Groton was a Prestigious preparatory school in Massachusetts then graduated and continued to Harvard where he gained a BA in history. Roosevelt went on to study law at Columbia University in New York. He later passed the bar in 1907, then went on to practice at a very prominent law firm in New York. he didn't enter the world of politics till 1910 when he was elected to the senate for New York as a democrat.
His Family
While he was studying law he decided to marry his distant cousin, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who was the president at the times, Theodore Roosevelt, niece. Together they had six kids, but only five survived: Anna, James Elliot, Franklin, Jr. and John. While all this was going on he was reelected for the senate 1912. He supported Woodrow Wilson in his campaign at the Democratic National Convention. As a reward, Wilson decided to make him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913 and kept this position until 1920. His popularity because of his great work with World War II got him running for vice-president with almost president-elect James M. Cox (Ohio). Wilson instead of supporting the democratic runner he supported republican, Warren Harding. Seeing as Roosevelt and Cox lost, FDR returned to his life before the election.
Vacation turned bad...
While Vacationing in the Campobella Islands, New Brunswick in the early summer of 1921 FDR contracted poliomyelitis. This disease causes the nerves in your spinal cord to over time weaked causing a lot of pain in your entire body expecally your legs. Over time you can become paralised, in FDR's cause he didn't get to lucky. FDR was in a lot of pain and eventually had to start using a wheelchair when he completly lost all function of his legs. He decided to keep the seriousness of his sickness a secret that he kept away from america during his presidency.
FDR's Presidency
While FDR was president he got a lot done for America. He started the New Deal that helped get us out of the Great Depression. He started the March of Dimes charity for kids that suffered from diseases like polio, and later with the help of this charity they would create the vaccine for polio. FDR was one of the few presidents that actually talked to the people and considered what they were thinking and going through with his fireside chats. When he campaigned against Hoover he said the government was ineffective and wanted to get us out of the Great Depression. He beat Hoover by six million votes.