Timeline Description: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States. Many people believe he was one of the greatest presidents in United States history because he led the country through very difficult times. He was president for 13 years, which is longer than any other person has been president.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 30, 1882 | Roosevelt is born in New York. Roosevelt is born in Hyde Park, New York. His parents, James and Sara, are rich and have a large house on land they call Springwood. |
| September 1896 | Roosevelt attends school for the first time. Roosevelt goes to a private school in Groton, Massachusetts. It is the first time that he has gone to school with other children instead of having a private tutor. |
| September 1900 | Roosevelt goes to college. Roosevelt moves to Cambridge, Massachusetts to go to Harvard University. |
| September 1904 | Roosevelt goes to law school. Roosevelt moves to New York City to go to law school at Columbia University. He does not graduate from law school, but he passes the test to become a lawyer. |
| March 17, 1905 | Roosevelt gets married. Roosevelt marries his fifth cousin, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. Franklin and Eleanor will have six children together. |
| November 8, 1910 | Roosevelt wins his first election. Roosevelt is elected a senator for the state of New York. He decides that he would rather be a politician than a lawyer. |
| 1913 | Roosevelt goes to Washington, D.C. After Woodrow Wilson is elected president of the United States, Roosevelt is asked to be the secretary of the U.S. Navy. Roosevelt moves to Washington, D.C. and keeps this job for seven years. |
| 1920 | Roosevelt campaigns for vice-president. Roosevelt enters the election for vice-president of the United States. He loses the election, but is good at campaigning and looks forward to running for president someday. |
| August 1921 | Roosevelt is paralyzed. While on vacation in Maine with his family, Roosevelt gets a disease that makes him unable to use his legs for the rest of his life. Doctors said at the time that he had a disease called polio, but he may have had a different disease that doctors did not know about in 1921 called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. |
| November 6, 1928 | Roosevelt becomes a governor. Roosevelt is elected governor of New York. He is a popular governor because he is not afraid to fight corruption in the government. |
| November 8, 1932 | Roosevelt wins his first presidential election. Roosevelt is elected president of the United States for the first time. Americans hope that Roosevelt can help the economy and end the Great Depression. |
| March 1933 | Roosevelt creates the New Deal. Roosevelt creates a group of programs he calls the New Deal. He hopes the New Deal will help end the Great Depression. |
| November 3, 1936 | Roosevelt wins his second presidential election. Roosevelt is elected president for the second time. He receives more votes than any other candidate in the past 100 years. |
| November 5, 1940 | Roosevelt wins his third presidential election. Roosevelt is elected president for the third time. He is the first person to be elected president of the United States more than two times. |
| December 7, 1941 | Congress declares war on Japan. Roosevelt asks the United States Congress to declare war against Japan because Japan bombed American ships in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Germany declares war against the United States. |
| November 7, 1944 | Roosevelt wins his fourth presidential election. Roosevelt is elected president for the fourth time. Most Americans do not know that Roosevelt is a very sick man. |
| April 12, 1945 | Roosevelt dies. Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia. Vice-President Harry Truman becomes the president of the United States. |