Franklin D. Roosevelt
30-Jan-1882
United States
Statesperson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States. The FDR, as it was commonly called, led the United States through the Great Depression and World War II, and greatly increased the power of the coalition government through a series of programs and reforms known as the New Deal.
Infected with polio in 1921, Roosevelt spent most of his adult life in a wheelchair. A whole generation of Americans grew up not knowing another president, because the FDR served four names that have never been seen before. Roosevelt's social programs reintroduced the role of government in the lives of the American people, while his presidency during World War II established American leadership around the world.