Nov.
8, 1932
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt wins the presidential election
1933
Adolf Hitler becomes the chancellor of Germany
March
4
President
Roosevelt is inaugurated, proclaiming in his address, “There is nothing
to fear but fear itself.”
March
5
A
special session of Congress summoned by Roosevelt passes a weeklong
national bank holiday, containing a spreading bank panic
May
12
Congress
creates the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to distribute relief
funds to states
May
27
Congress
creates the Federal Securities Act, making corporate issues of stocks and
bonds subject to U.S. government approval
June
16
Congress
creates several new agencies: the National Recovery Administration, to
regulate industrial competition; the Public Works Administration, to
create new jobs on infrastructure and community maintenance projects; the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to protect bank accounts of
consumers; and the Farm Credit Administration, to extend financial aid to
troubled farmers
Nov. 9
Roosevelt
creates the Civil Works Administration for further public works employment
1934
• Huey Long of Louisiana proposes the “Share our Wealth” program
• Father Charles Coughlin forms the National Union for Social Justice
Feb.
15
Congress
passes the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act, continuing funds for relief
and employment programs
May
Massive
dust storms on the Great Plains spark westward migration by farmers to
California
June
6
Roosevelt
signs a bill creating the Securities and Exchange Commission, regulating
the trading of stocks and bonds
June
19
Roosevelt
signs a bill creating the Federal Communications Commission, regulating
all electronic media
Aug.
A
group of big business executives form the Liberty League to oppose the New
Deal
1935
May
6
Roosevelt
creates the Works Progress Administration to create additional jobs on
infrastructure projects
May
27
The
Supreme Court invalidates the National Recovery At, ruling it an
unconstitutional intrusion on private commerce
July
5
Roosevelt
signs a bill establishing the National Labor Relations Board, protecting
workers’ rights to collective organization and bargaining
Aug.
14
Roosevelt
signs the Social Security Act, establishing pensions for persons aged
sixty-five and over
Aug.
23
Congress passes the Banking Act, which restructures the Federal
Reserve System
1936
•
Charlie Chaplin’s film, ‘Modern Times’, appears in theaters
• Douglas Aircraft introduces the DC-3, a passenger plane that makes
commercial air service consistently profitable for the first time
• The Spanish Civil War begins (1936-1939)
Jan.
6
The
Supreme Court invalidates the Agricultural Adjustment Act
June
29
Congress
passes the Merchant Marine Act, granting new subsidies to the U.S.
shipping industry
Nov.
3
Roosevelt
wins election to a second term
1937
•
Japan invades China
Jan.
20
Roosevelt
is inaugurated for a second term
Feb.
5
Roosevelt
announces his “court-packing” plan to increase Supreme Court
membership; legislation dies in the Senate
May
1
Roosevelt
signs the Neutrality Act, limiting U.S. commercial dealings with nations
at war
July
22
Congress
passes a law creating the Farm Security Administration, providing
financial aid to farm laborers
Aug.-Oct.
A
major slide on stock markets signals a worsening of the Depression
1938
•
Kristallnacht – Anti-Semitic violence throughout Germany
May
26
The House forms the Un-American Activities Committee, chaired by
Martin Dies of Texas
May
27
An
emerging anti-New Deal coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats
passes a tax reduction for corporations
June
15
Congress passes the Fair Labor Standards Act, requiring overtime pay
and establishing a minimum wage
Dec.
24
The
Conference of Western Hemisphere Nations agrees to security cooperation
against possible threats from Axis powers
1939
•
Judy Garland stars in ‘The Wizard of Oz’
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is published
Jan.
25
Columbia
University physicists achieve nuclear fission in the U.S. for the first
time (German scientists have already accomplished such a feat), leading
Albert Einstein to warn President Roosevelt that an atomic bomb is now
feasible
Sep.
1
Germany invades Poland, opening the Second World War
Sep.
21
Roosevelt
calls a special session of Congress in response to European hostilities,
urges revision of the 1937 Neutrality Act to allow arms exports to
combatants
Nov.
4
Congress passes a revised Neutrality Act, allowing arms sales to
combatants so long as they pay in cash and use their own ships for
transportation
1940
June
15
Roosevelt
establishes a National Defense Research Committee, one of whose aims is to
examine the feasibility of an atomic bomb
July
31
Roosevelt
halts the export of aviation fuel to Japan; in September, the president
embargoes steel and scrap-iron exports
Sep.
3
The
United States donates obsolete naval vessels to Britain in exchange for
leases on British bases in the Caribbean, beginning the Lend-Lease program
Sep.
16
Congress
passes the Selection Service Act, the first peacetime draft in U.S.
history
Nov.
5
Roosevelt
wins the presidential election
Dec.
29
In
a Fireside Chat, Roosevelt calls for the United States to become “the
arsenal of democracy”
1941
•
The Nazis begin the Final Solution – genocide of European Jews
Jan.
6
In
his annual address to Congress, Roosevelt outlines “Four Freedoms” as
the basis of a post-war world
Jan.
20
Roosevelt
is inaugurated for a third term
March
11
Roosevelt
signs the Lend-Lease bill, creating a formal system for the transfer of
U.S. military equipment to the Allies in return for goods and services as
payment
Dec.
7
Japanese
aircraft bomb the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor; Japanese sea and air
forces attack U.S. ports at Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, and
British bases at Malaya and Singapore
Dec.
8
Congress
declares war against Japan.
Dec.
11
Germany
and Italy declare war on the United States, prompting the U.S. Congress to
respond in kind
1942
Jan.
12
Roosevelt
creates the War Labor Board to settle labor disputes
Jan.
16
Roosevelt
establishes the War Production Board to coordinate industrial production
Jan.
30
Roosevelt
signs the Price Control Act, giving the Office of Price Administration the
power to dictate all nonagricultural prices
Feb.
19
Roosevelt
orders the removal – and subsequent internment – of more than one
hundred thousand Japanese-Americans from the West Coast
June
4-6
The
U.S. Navy inflicts a major defeat on the Japanese at the Battle of Midway
June
13
Roosevelt
creates the Office of War Information to supervise U.S. government
propaganda and the Office of Strategic Services to coordinate military
intelligence
Dec.
2
Scientists
at the University of Chicago achieve the first sustained nuclear chain
reaction in human history
1943
April
17
The
War Manpower Commission bans twenty-seven million workers in essential
defense jobs from leaving their position
May
27
Roosevelt establishes the Office of War Mobilization to coordinate all
domestic aspects of U.S. military effort
Sep.
3
The
Allied invasion of Italy begins
Oct.
19
A
conference of U.S., British, and Soviet diplomats in Moscow agree to
cooperate on war aims and to form an international peacekeeping
organization after the conflict
Nov.
9
The
Allies establish the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration to coordinate aid for refugees
1944
•
Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam independent of France
June
6
D-Day;
Allied forces under Dwight D. Eisenhower land at Normandy beaches in
France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe
June 22
Roosevelt
signs the GI Bill of Rights, providing a broad array of educational and
other benefits for World War II veterans
July
A
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, conference of Allied economic advisers
establishes the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
Aug.
21
U.S.,
British, Soviet, and Chinese officials create a framework for the United
Nations organization in a conference at Dumbarton Oaks near Washington,
D.C.
Nov.
7
Roosevelt
wins election to a fourth term
1945
April
12
Franklin
D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, Georgia
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 in the Hudson Valley town of
Hyde Park. His father, James Roosevelt, and his mother, Sara Ann Delano,
were each from wealthy old New York families, of Dutch and French ancestry
respectively. Franklin was their only child. His paternal grandmother,
Mary Rebecca Aspinwall, was a first cousin of Elizabeth Kortright Monroe,
wife of the fifth U.S. President, James Monroe. One of his ancestors was
John Lothropp, also an ancestor of Benedict Arnold and Joseph Smith, Jr.
One of his distant relatives from his mother's side is the author Laura
Ingalls Wilder. His maternal grandfather Warren Delano II, a descendant of
Mayflower passengers Richard Warren, Isaac Allerton, Degory Priest, and
Francis Cooke, during a period of twelve years in China made more than a
million dollars in the tea trade in Macau, Canton and Hong Kong, but upon
returning to the United States, he lost it all in the Panic of 1857. In
1860, he returned to China and made a fortune in the notorious but highly
profitable opium trade supplying opium-based medication to the U. S. War
Department during the American Civil War but not exclusively.
Roosevelt grew up in an atmosphere of privilege. Sara was a possessive
mother, while James was an elderly and remote father (he was 54 when
Franklin was born). Sara was the dominant influence in Franklin's early
years.[8] Frequent trips to Europe made Roosevelt conversant in German and
French. He learned to ride, shoot, row, and play polo and lawn tennis.
Roosevelt went to Groton School, an Episcopal boarding school in
Massachusetts. He was heavily influenced by its headmaster, Endicott
Peabody, who preached the duty of Christians to help the less fortunate
and urged his students to enter public service. Roosevelt went to Harvard,
where he lived in luxurious quarters and was a member of the Alpha Delta
Phi fraternity. While at Harvard, his fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt
became president, and Theodore's vigorous leadership style and reforming
zeal made him Franklin's role model and hero. In 1902, he met his future
wife Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore's niece, at a White House reception.
(They had previously met as children, but this was their first serious
encounter.) Eleanor and Franklin were fifth cousins, once removed. They
were both descended from Claes Martensz van Rosenvelt (Roosevelt), who
arrived in New Amsterdam (Manhattan) from the Netherlands in the 1640s.
Roosevelt's two grandsons, Johannes and Jacobus, began the Long Island and
Hudson River branches of the Roosevelt family, respectively. Eleanor and
Theodore Roosevelt were descended from the Johannes branch, while FDR came
from the Jacobus branch.
Roosevelt entered Columbia Law School in 1905, but dropped out (never to
graduate) in 1907 because he had passed the New York State Bar exam. In
1908, he took a job with the prestigious Wall Street firm of Carter
Ledyard & Milburn, dealing mainly with corporate law.
Anna
Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945.
She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, and assumed a role as an advocate for civil rights. After her
husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an internationally
prominent author and speaker for the New Deal coalition. She worked to
enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights
Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women.
In
the 1940s, Roosevelt was one of the co-founders of Freedom House and
supported the formation of the United Nations. Roosevelt founded the UN
Association of the United States in 1943 to advance support for the
formation of the UN. She was a delegate to the UN General Assembly from
1945 and 1952, a job for which she was appointed by President Harry S.
Truman and confirmed by the United States Senate. During her time at the
United Nations she chaired the committee that drafted and approved the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. President Truman called her the
"First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights
achievements.
Active
in politics for the rest of her life, Roosevelt chaired the John F.
Kennedy administration's ground-breaking committee which helped start
second-wave feminism, the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
She was one of the most admired persons of the 20th century, according to
Gallup's List of Widely Admired People
Anna
Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, at 56 West 37th Street in
New York City, New York [citation needed]. Her parents were Elliott
Roosevelt and Anna Hall Roosevelt. She was named Anna for her mother and
for her aunt, Anna Cowles and Eleanor for her father, who was nicknamed
"Ellie". From the beginning, Roosevelt preferred to be called by
her middle name, Eleanor. Two brothers, Elliott, Jr. (1889–1893) and
Hall Roosevelt (1891–1941) were born later. She also had a half brother,
Elliott Roosevelt Mann, the result of an extramarital relation between
Elliot and Katy Mann, a young servant girl employed by Anna.
Roosevelt
was born into a world of immense wealth and privilege, as her family was
part of New York high society called the "swells"
When
Roosevelt was eight, her mother died of diphtheria and she and her
brothers were sent to live with her maternal grandmother, Mary Ludlow Hall
(1843–1919) at Tivoli, New York and at a brownstone in New York City.
Just before Roosevelt turned ten, she was orphaned when her father died of
complications of alcoholism. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of
Eleanor Roosevelt, author Joseph Lash describes her during this period of
childhood as insecure and starved for affection, considering herself
"ugly". In the fall of 1899, with the encouragement of her
paternal aunt Bamie Cowles, the family decided to send Roosevelt to
Allenswood Academy, an English finishing school. The headmistress, Marie
Souvestre, was a noted feminist educator who sought to cultivate
independent thinking in the young women in her charge. Roosevelt learned
to speak French fluently and gained self-confidence. Her first-cousin
Corinne Robinson, whose first term at Allenswood overlapped with
Roosevelt's last, said that when she arrived at the school, Roosevelt was
"everything".
