Some historians rank Roosevelt as one of the top four U.S. presidents. FDR born, Jan. 30, 1882

On this day in 1882, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served 12 years and was elected to four terms as the nation’s 32nd president, was born at the family estate in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park. His parents — sixth cousins who were also born into rich families — were James Roosevelt, who died in 1900, and Sara Ann Delano. She died in 1941 shortly before the United States entered World War II, while FDR, as he was widely known, was in the White House.

Some historians rank Roosevelt as one of the top four U.S. presidents, along with Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. He played a key role on the world stage during the mid-20th century, taking office while the country was mired in the Great Depression and steering the nation through a worldwide conflict with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan that ended shortly after his death on April 12, 1945, at age 63.


Beginning in 1932, FDR built a new political coalition that realigned U.S. politics and spurred a series of congressional victories. Some key vestiges, such as Social Security, remain in force to this day. In his first 100 days in office, which began March 4, 1933, FDR spearheaded major legislation and issued a cornucopia of executive orders that instituted the New Deal. They provided government jobs to combat unemployment, which peaked at 25 percent, and reformed Wall Street through the creation of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which still exists.

With near-total backing, he called on Congress to declare war on Japan and Germany after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Unemployment dropped to 2 percent, and the economy grew rapidly as millions of people moved to new war-production jobs while 16 million men and 300,000 women were drafted or volunteered for military service.

SOURCE: “FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: CHAMPION OF FREEDOM,” BY CONRAD BLACK (2003)