interesting facts  
Franklin Roosevelt is the only President to exceed two terms. 

quote  
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Inaugural Address

Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 Inaugural Address - Excerpt (2:46). (AU) (WAV)
Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1945 Inaugural Address - An Excerpt. (3.7 MB) (MOV)

inaugural address
First Inaugural Address / Second Inaugural Address / Third Inaugural Address / Fourth Inaugural Address

biography  
Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  

Born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York--now a national historic site--he attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. On St. Patrick's Day, 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt.  

Following the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered public service through politics, but as a Democrat. He won election to the New York Senate in 1910. President Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920.  

In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit-h-e was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating indomitable courage, he fought to regain the use of his legs, particularly through swimming. At the 1924 Democratic Convention he dramatically appeared on crutches to nominate Alfred E. Smith as "the Happy Warrior." In 1928 Roosevelt became Governor of New York.  

He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. By March there were 13,000,000 unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. In his first "hundred days," he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority.  

By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New Deal program. They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the Nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked the concessions to labor. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed.  

In 1936 he was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he was armed with a popular mandate, he sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating key New Deal measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle, but a revolution in constitutional law took place. Thereafter the Government could legally regulate the economy.  

Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy, transforming the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into arrangements for mutual action against aggressors. He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the United States out of the war in Europe, yet at the same time to strengthen nations threatened or attacked. When France fell and England came under siege in 1940, he began to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement.  

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation's manpower and resources for global war.  

Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled.  

As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt's health deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.  

events during franklin roosevelt's administration 1933-1945

cabinet and supreme court of franklin roosevelt

Banking holiday proclaimed and gold standard suspended (1933). Tennessee Valley Authority organized (1933). Industrial recovery program started under NRA (1933). Banking laws revised and bank deposits insured (1933). Federal unemployment relief provided (1933). Prohibition repealed (1933). Stock exchanges brought under federal regulation (1934). Federal housing program (1934). Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (1934). NRA declared unconstitutional (1935). Social Security Act (1935). Right of collective bargaining guaranteed to labor (1935). AAA declared unconstitutional (1936). Soldiers' bonus act (1936). Reelected for second term (1936). Reorganization of Supreme Court defeated (1937). Neutrality laws passed (1935-37, 1939). Fair Labor Standards Act (1938). New Agricultural Adjustment Act (1938). Executive departments reorganized (1939-40). Largest peacetime defense program set up (1939-40). Reelected for third term (1940). Lend-Lease Act (1941). Atlantic Charter (1941). War with Axis powers (1941). "G.I. Bill of Rights" (1944). Reelected for fourth term (1944). Discussion of peace plans with Churchill and Stalin (1945). Death of president (April 12, 1945).

Vice-Presidents. John Nance Garner (1933-41); Henry A. Wallace (1941-45); Harry S. Truman (1945). Secretaries of State. Cordell Hull (1933-44); Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. (1944-45). Secretaries of the Treasury. William H. Woodin (1933); Henry Morgenthau (1934-45). Secretaries of War. George H. Dern (1933-36); Harry H. Woodring (1936-40); Henry L. Stimson (1940-45). Attorneys General. Homer S. Cummings (1933-39); Frank Murphy (1939-40); Robert H. Jackson (1940-41); Francis Biddle (1941-45). Secretaries of the Navy. Claude A. Swanson (1933-39); Charles Edison (1940); Frank Knox (1940-44); James V. Forrestal (1944-45). Postmasters General. James A. Farley (1933-40); Frank C. Walker (1940-45). Secretary of the Interior. Harold L. Ickes (1933-45). Secretaries of Agriculture. Henry A. Wallace (1933-40); Claude R. Wickard (1940-45). Secretaries of Commerce. Daniel C. Roper (1933-38); Harry L. Hopkins (1938-40); Jesse H. Jones (1940-45). Appointments to the Supreme Court. Hugo L. Black (1937-71); Stanley F. Reed (1938-57); Felix Frankfurter (1939-62); William O. Douglas (1939-75); Frank Murphy (1940-49); Harlan Fiske Stone (elevated to chief justice, 1941-46); James F. Byrnes (1941-42); Robert H. Jackson (1941-54) Wiley B. Rutledge (1943-49).