Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt, (1882-1945). US statesman; 3″Ind president of the US (1932-45). A distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore’s niece, in 1905. Eleanor was herself a social reformer. He was partially crippled by polio in 1921. In 1932 he was elected president and introduced the New Deal, a programme to aid labour, agriculture and the unemployed during the Depression of the 1930s. After being re-elected for a third term as president in 1940 he resisted involving the US in World War II until forced to by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (1941). He died suddenly, after being elected for a record fourth term as president, and was mourned throughout the world.
