Benjamin Stoddert
Benjamin Stoddert was the first United States Secretary of the Navy from May 1, 1798, to March 31, 1801. Stoddert was born in Maryland, in 1744, the son of Captain Thomas Stoddert, he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, worked as a merchant. He served as a captain in the Pennsylvania cavalry and as secretary to the Continental Board of War during the American Revolutionary War. During the war, he was injured in the Battle of Brandywine and was subsequently released from active military service. In 1781, he married Rebecca Lowndes, daughter of Christopher Lowndes, a Maryland merchant, they had eight children, they resided at the home of his father-in-law, located at Bladensburg, Maryland. In 1783, Stoddert established a tobacco export business in Georgetown, with business partners Uriah Forrest and John Murdock. After George Washington was elected President, he asked Stoddert to purchase key parcels of land in the area that would become the nation's capital, before the formal decision to establish the federal city on the banks of the Potomac drove up prices there.
Stoddert transferred the parcels to the government. During the 1790s, he helped found the Bank of Columbia to handle purchases of land in the District of Columbia for the federal government. In May 1798, President John Adams appointed Stoddert, a loyal Federalist, to oversee the newly established Department of the Navy; as the first Secretary of the Navy, Stoddert soon found himself dealing with an undeclared naval war with France, which would come to be known as the Quasi-War. Stoddert realized that the infant Navy possessed too few warships to protect a far-flung merchant marine by using convoys or by patrolling the North American coast. Rather, he concluded that the best way to defeat the French campaign against American shipping was by offensive operations in the Caribbean, where most of the French cruisers were based, thus at the outset of the conflict, the Department of the Navy adopted a policy of going to the source of the enemy's strength. American successes during the conflict resulted from a combination of Stoddert's administrative skill in deploying his limited forces and the initiative of his seagoing officers.
Under Stoddert's leadership, the reestablished United States Navy acquitted itself well and achieved its goal of stopping the depredations of French ships against American commerce. Stoddert concerned himself not only with the Navy's daily administration and operations, but with the service's future strength, he advocated building twelve 74 gun ships of the line. Congress approved construction of these ships in 1799, a design was prepared by Joshua Humphrey, who had prepared the initial designs for the 44 gun frigates of 1797 and lumber collected at the new Navy Yards. Following the peace accord with France, the Navy's personnel strength and number of active vessels was reduced; the Jefferson Administration reduced active naval strength to three frigates and sold off or used the collected supplies in the Navy Yards for gunboat construction. This policy left the United States unprepared to respond to the threats of the Barbary pirates and failed to prevent war with England in 1812. Stoddert established the Navy Department Library as a result of instructions received from President Adams in a letter dated 31 March 1800.
He left office in March 1801 to return to commercial life. Following his term as Secretary of the Navy, Stoddert's final years witnessed a decline in his fortunes: as Stoddert lost in land speculation, Georgetown declined as a commercial center, the Embargo and the War of 1812 brought American overseas trade to a halt. During this period he lived at Halcyon House, on the corner at 3400 Prospect Street NW. Stoddert died on December 13, 1813, is buried in the graveyard at Addison Chapel, Seat Pleasant, Maryland. Two Navy ships: USS Stoddert, 1920–1935, USS Benjamin Stoddert, 1964–1991 Fort Stoddert in the Mississippi Territory Benjamin Stoddert Middle School in Waldorf, Maryland Benjamin Stoddert Middle School in Temple Hills, Maryland Benjamin Stoddert Elementary School in Washington D. C. In the Georgetown section of Washington, DC, there was a Stoddert Street named after Benjamin Stoddert. In the Georgetown street renaming of 1895 the name was changed to Q Street NW. An apartment building that today stands at 2900 Q Street NW is named The Stoddert.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Naval History & Heritage Command. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Biography on Benjamin Stoddert Brief on Benjamin Stoddert
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building —formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building and earlier as the State and Navy Building—is a U. S. government building situated just west of the White House in the U. S. capital of Washington, D. C. Maintained by the General Services Administration, it is occupied by the Executive Office of the President, including the Office of the Vice President of the United States. Located on 17th Street NW, between Pennsylvania Avenue and State Place, West Executive Drive, the building was commissioned by President Ulysses S. Grant, it was built between 1871 and 1888, on the site of the original 1800 War/State/Navy Building and the White House stables, in the French Second Empire style. While the building exterior received substantial criticism at first, it has since been designated as a National Historic Landmark, it was for years the world's largest office building, with 566 rooms and about ten acres of floor space. Many White House employees have their offices in the EEOB.
In 1802, the Washington Jockey Club lay at the rear of what is now the site of Decatur House at H Street and Jackson Place, crossing Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to Twentieth Street—today the Eisenhower Executive Office Building—having been completed only four years earlier in 1798, as the stonemasons had finished the brick and painters applied white paint to the President's House. The building—originally called the State and Navy Building because it housed the Departments of State and the Navy—was built between 1871 and 1888 in the French Second Empire style, it was designed by Alfred B. Mullett, Supervising Architect. Patterned after French Second Empire architecture that clashed with the neoclassical style of the other Federal buildings in the city, it was regarded with scorn and disdain, Mullett, the exterior architect, ended his life by suicide, while in litigation; the OEOB was referred to by Mark Twain as "the ugliest building in America." President Harry S. Truman called it "the greatest monstrosity in America."
Historian Henry Adams called it Mullett's “architectural infant asylum.”Much of the interior was designed by Richard von Ezdorf using fireproof cast-iron structural and decorative elements, including massive skylights above each of the major stairwells and doorknobs with cast patterns indicating which of the original three occupying departments occupied a particular space. The total cost to construct the building came in at $10,038,482.42 when construction ended in 1888, after 17 years. The original tenants of the building outgrew it and vacated it in the late 1930s; the building came to be seen as inefficient and was nearly demolished in 1957. In 1969, the building received the highest recognition possible, becoming a National Historic Landmark. In 1981, plans began to restore all the "secretary of" suites; the main office of the Secretary of the Navy was restored in 1987 and is now used as the ceremonial office of the Vice President of the United States. Shortly after September 11, 2001, the 17th Street side of the building was vacated and has since been modernized.
The building continues to house various agencies that compose the President's Executive Office, such as the Office of the Vice President, the Office of Management and Budget, the National Security Council. Its most public function is that of the Vice President's Ceremonial Office, used for special meetings and press conferences. Many celebrated national figures have participated in historical events that have taken place within the Old Executive Office Building. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush all had offices in this building before becoming President, it has housed 16 Secretaries of the Navy, 21 Secretaries of War, 24 Secretaries of State. Sir Winston Churchill once walked its corridors and Japanese emissaries met there with Secretary of State Cordell Hull after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Presidents have occupied space in the EEOB as well. Herbert Hoover worked out of the Secretary of the Navy's office for a few months following a fire in the Oval Office on Christmas Eve 1929.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first televised Presidential news conference in the building's Indian Treaty Room on January 19, 1955. President Richard Nixon maintained a private "hideaway" office in room 180 of the EEOB during his presidency, from where he preferred to work, using the Oval Office only for ceremonial occasions. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was the first in a succession of Vice Presidents who have had offices in the building; the first wife of a Vice President to have an office in the building was Marilyn Quayle, wife of Dan Quayle, Vice President to George H. W. Bush; the Old Executive Office Building was renamed the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building when President Bill Clinton approved legislation changing the name on November 9, 1999. President George W. Bush participated in a rededication ceremony on May 7, 2002. A small fire on December 19, 2007 damaged an office of the vice-president's staff and included the VP ceremonial office. According to media reporting, the office of the Vice President's Political Director, Amy Whitelaw, was damaged in the fire.
Theodore Roosevelt – while Assistant Secretary of the Navy William Howard Taft – while Secretary of War Herbert Hoover – temporary offices after White House fire Franklin Roosevelt – while Assistant Secretary of the Navy Harry S. Truman – temporary offices during reconstruction of the White House Dwight Eisenhower – while assigned to the Army General Staff Lyndon Johnson – while Vice President Richard Nixon – had "hideaway" office Gerald Ford – wh
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, with about 6,700 undergraduate students and about 15,250 postgraduate students. Established in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, clergyman John Harvard, Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher learning, its history and wealth have made it one of the world's most prestigious universities; the Harvard Corporation is its first chartered corporation. Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College trained Congregational and Unitarian clergy, its curriculum and student body were secularized during the 18th century, by the 19th century, Harvard had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's long tenure transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university. A. Lawrence Lowell, who followed Eliot, further reformed the undergraduate curriculum and undertook aggressive expansion of Harvard's land holdings and physical plant.
James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College; the university is organized into eleven separate academic units—ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—with campuses throughout the Boston metropolitan area: its 209-acre main campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge 3 miles northwest of Boston. Harvard's endowment is worth $39.2 billion, making it the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large residential research university; the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the university's large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. The Harvard Library is the world's largest academic and private library system, comprising 79 individual libraries holding over 18 million items; the University is cited as one of the world's top tertiary institutions by various organizations.
Harvard's alumni include eight U. S. presidents, more than thirty foreign heads of state, 62 living billionaires, 359 Rhodes Scholars, 242 Marshall Scholars. As of October 2018, 158 Nobel laureates, 18 Fields Medalists, 14 Turing Award winners have been affiliated as students, faculty, or researchers. In addition, Harvard students and alumni have won 10 Academy Awards, 48 Pulitzer Prizes and 108 Olympic medals, have founded a large number of companies worldwide. Harvard was established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it acquired British North America's first known printing press. In 1639, it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard, an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, who had left the school £779 and his scholar's library of some 400 volumes; the charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650. A 1643 publication gave the school's purpose as "to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust".
It offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any particular denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational and Unitarian churches; the leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701. In 1708, John Leverett became the first president, not a clergyman, marking a turning of the college from Puritanism and toward intellectual independence. Throughout the 18th century, Enlightenment ideas of the power of reason and free will became widespread among Congregational ministers, putting those ministers and their congregations in tension with more traditionalist, Calvinist parties; when the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year in 1804, a struggle broke out over their replacements. Henry Ware was elected to the chair in 1805, the liberal Samuel Webber was appointed to the presidency of Harvard two years which signaled the changing of the tide from the dominance of traditional ideas at Harvard to the dominance of liberal, Arminian ideas.
In 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassiz's approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans' "participation in the Divine Nature" and the possibility of understanding "intellectual existences". Agassiz's perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the "divine plan" in all phenomena; when it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on a presumed archetype for his evidence. This dual view of knowledge was in concert with the teachings of Common Sense Realism derived from Scottish philosophers Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart, whose works were part of the Harvard curriculum at the time; the popularity of Agassiz's efforts to "soar with Plato" also derived from other writings to which Harvard students
Bureau of Navigation
The Bureau of Navigation the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation — not to be confused with the United States Navy's Bureau of Navigation — was an agency of the United States Government established in 1884 to enforce laws relating to the construction, operation, inspection and documentation of merchant vessels. The bureau investigated marine accidents and casualties; when established, the Bureau of Navigation was a part of the United States Department of the Treasury. In 1903, the organization was transferred to the newly formed United States Department of Commerce and Labor. In 1913 that department was split into the United States Department of Commerce and the United States Department of Labor, the bureau was assigned to the new Department of Commerce. In 1932 the bureau was combined with the Steamboat Inspection Service to form the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection; the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection was in turn renamed the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation in 1936.
In 1942, Executive Order 9083 transferred many functions of the bureau to two other agencies: Merchant vessel documentation was transferred to the United States Customs Service, while functions relating to merchant vessel inspection, safety of life at sea, merchant mariners were transferred to the United States Coast Guard. The merchant vessel documentation functions were transferred to the Coast Guard in 1946. With all its functions having been absorbed by the U. S. Customs Service and the U. S. Coast Guard, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was abolished as unnecessary and redundant by Reorganization Plan No. III of 1946. Ships of the Bureau of Navigation, the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation flew a blue flag with a white three-masted sailing ship within a red disc. Ships of the bureau with the director of the bureau embarked flew the director's flag, which featured the same white three-masted sailing ship on a blue field.
US National Archives Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation Records of the U. S. Navy Bureau of Navigation
Jay A. DeLoach
Rear Admiral Jay Allan DeLoach served as the Director of Naval History and Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command and the Curator of the Navy from 2008 to 2012. He was an American submarine officer who played a role in implementing a visionary "Memorandum of Understanding" between the Submarine Force Active component and the Reserve component, he helped pioneer many key initiatives. DeLoach was the Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Resources and Assessments. DeLoach was born in San Diego, California to Jesse Howell DeLoach and Berta Peña, a woman from Texas of Hispanic-American descent. DeLoach's father was a Chief Yeoman when he met Ms Peña, who at that time worked building F-102 fighters at the Convair plant in San Diego. DeLoach's father received a commission in 1960 through the Limited Duty Officer program and as a result, the family was in a constant state of relocation, with DeLoach attending schools in various states. DeLoach's family had a strong tradition of Naval Service.
His grandfather was a Chief Machinist's Mate in the Navy and served for 23 years from 1922 to 1945. DeLoach received his first taste of what Navy life when he was a teenager and his father took him out on his minesweeper for two weeks; this experience plus, the fact that it was his family's tradition to serve in the Navy were influential factors when in 1974 he choose to attend the United States Naval Academy upon his graduation from First Colonial High in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Because of a permanent injury to his right shoulder from birth, DeLoach passed the entrance physical exam and medical screening to get into the Naval Academy. DeLoach passed the physical as a result of his parent's early intervention and persistent exercising of his arm, he was able to make good use of his right arm though it only had one-third of the strength of his left arm. DeLoach graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Engineering from the Naval Academy in 1978 and commissioned an Ensign, he entered training and service in submarines and made ten deterrent patrols on the USS Kamehameha in the Mediterranean, USS Patrick Henry in the South China Sea, USS Lewis and Clark in northern Atlantic.
He served as an Engineering Officer in the latter two and was awarded three Battle Efficiency'E' awards. In 1980, he was promoted in 1983 to Lieutenant. DeLoach, who received a spot promotion to Lieutenant Commander in 1984, was the Sonar Transducer Branch Chief at Naval Sea Systems Command from 1987 to 1989. During this period of time DeLoach earned a Masters of Arts in Management & Supervision degree from Central Michigan University in 1987 and in 1988 was permanently promoted to Lieutenant Commander. After his active duty tours, DeLoach continued his service with the Navy Reserve. Amongst his assignments were Naval Intelligence, OPNAV N87 Submarine Warfare staff, Navy Recruiting, Commander 7th Fleet staff, Naval Sea Systems Command Inspector General, he served as the Reserve Force Director for 44 reserve units reporting to the Commander Submarine Force, U. S. Atlantic Fleet and as the Commanding Officer of NR COMSEVENTHFLT Detachment 111, he was the commanding officer of the Submarine Squadron SIX reserve detachment, the OPNAV Detachment Site-R.
Among the various awards which his units received under his command are the Captain Leo V. Bilger Award for excellence in mission effectiveness and a CNO Letter of Commendation, he completed two extended active duty assignments with the Joint Staff J7 working on Joint Doctrine and Professional Military Education initiatives. In 1993, DeLoach earned a Masters of Engineering in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Virginia and was promoted to Commander. DeLoach played an instrumental role in furthering the integration of the Submarine Force's Reserve Component with the Active component into a surge-ready force. Under DeLoach's direction, the Submarine Force's Reserve Component has continued to lead this transformation to the new model of warfighting wholeness. DeLoach's role in implementing a visionary Memorandum of Understanding between the Submarine Force Active component and the Reserve component is considered to have pioneered many key initiatives that have since been adopted Navy-wide.
On February 25, 2003 Captain DeLoach was nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral while serving as commanding officer, Naval Reserve, Seventh Fleet Detachment 111, Fort Worth, Texas. That same year he earned a Masters of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies form the Naval War College. On September 3, DeLoach was promoted to Rear Admiral in a ceremony held at the Navy Memorial in Washington, D. C. DeLoach was contacted by the Director of Naval Research, RADM Jay Cohen, to help search for the USS Alligator that went down in a storm off the coast of North Carolina in 1863, close to where the USS Monitor went down. Using a variety of remote sensing instruments, researchers from NOAA, the Office of Naval Research, East Carolina University conducted the first comprehensive hunt for lost Civil War vessel; the USS Alligator was the first submarine built during the Civil War by the Union Navy. The Navy wanted such a vessel to counter the threat posed to its wooden-hulled blockaders by the former screw frigate Merrimack which, according to intelligence reports, the Norfolk Navy Yard was rebuilding as an ironclad ram for the Confederacy.
The search's main objective in locating the vessel is to educate the Submarine Force and Navy in general that their undersea heritage started back in the Civil War era. DeLoach was the Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Resources and Assessments. Among his responsib
William Sims
William Sowden Sims was an admiral in the United States Navy who fought during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to modernize the navy. During World War I he commanded all United States naval forces operating in Europe, he served twice as president of the Naval War College. Sims was born to American parents Alfred William and Adelaide living in Port Hope, Canada, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1880, the beginnings of an era of naval reform and greater professionalization. Commodore Stephen B. Luce founded the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island in 1884, to be the service's professional school. During the same era, Naval War College instructor Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan was writing influential books on naval strategy and sea power. In March 1897, shortly after his promotion to lieutenant, Sims was assigned as the military attache to Paris and St. Petersburg. In this position he became aware of naval technology developments in Europe as well attaining familiarity with European politics which would assist him during World War I.
He was in this assignment during the Spanish–American War during which Sims was able to use his diplomatic connections to gain information on Spain and its high-ranking officials. Sims married Anne Erwin Hitchcock, twenty three years his junior, in 1905; the couple had three daughters and two sons. Mrs. Sims died in 1960 at age 85; as a young officer, Sims sought to reform naval gunnery by improving target practice. His superiors resisted his suggestions, he was hindered by his low rank. In 1902, Sims wrote directly to President Theodore Roosevelt; the president, who had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was intrigued by Sims' ideas and made him the Navy's Inspector of Naval Gunnery on November 5, 1902, shortly after which Sims was promoted to lieutenant commander. He was promoted to commander in 1907. From 1911 to 1912, Sims attended the Naval War College. Promoted to captain in 1911, he became Commander, Atlantic Destroyer Flotilla in July 1913. On March 11, 1916, Sims became the first captain of the battleship USS Nevada.
Nevada was the largest, most modern and most powerful ship in the U. S. Navy at that time, his selection as her captain shows the esteem. Shortly before the United States entered World War I Rear Admiral Sims was assigned as the president of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island in February 1917. Just before the U. S. entered the war, the Wilson administration sent him to London as the senior naval representative. After the U. S. entry in April 1917, Sims was given command over U. S. naval forces operating from Britain. He received a temporary promotion to vice admiral in May 1917; the major threat he faced was a effective German submarine campaign against freighters bringing vital food and munitions to the Allies. The combined Anglo-American naval war against U-boats in the western approaches to the British Isles in 1917-18 was a success due to ability of Sims to work smoothly with his British counterpart, Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly. Sims believed the Navy Department in Washington, headed by Assistant Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt, was failing to provide him with sufficient authority, autonomy and naval forces.
He ended the war as a vice admiral, in command of all U. S. naval forces operating in Europe. Shortly after the Armistice, Sims was promoted to temporary admiral in December 1918 but reverted to his permanent rank of rear admiral in April 1919 when he was assigned as president of the Naval War College. In 1919 after the war ended in Allied victory, Sims publicly attacked the deficiencies of American naval strategy, tactics and administration, he charged the failures had cost the Allies 2,500,000 tons of supplies, thereby prolonging the war by six months. He estimated the delay had raised the cost of the war to the Allies by $15 billion, that it led to the unnecessary loss of 500,000 lives. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels was more of a politician than a naval strategist, but he ably countered the accusations, he pointed to Sims' anglophilism and said his vantage point in London was too narrow to assess the overall war effort by the U. S. Navy. Daniels cited prewar naval preparations and strategy proposals made by other American leaders during the war to disprove Sims' charges.
Despite the public acrimony, Sims emerged with his reputation unharmed and served a second tour as president of the Naval War College. It was during his time as the Naval War College that he wrote and published his book The Victory at Sea which describes his experiences in World War I. In 1921 The Victory at Sea won the Pulitzer Prize for History. Sims is the only career naval officer to win a Pulitzer Prize. Sims retired from the Navy in October 1922, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 64. In retirement he lived at 73 Catherine Street in Rhode Island, he appeared on the cover of the October 26, 1925 issue of Time magazine and was the subject of a feature article. He was promoted to full admiral on the retired list in 1930. Admiral Sims died in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1936 at the age of 77, he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His account of the U. S. naval effort during World War I, The Victory at Sea, won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for History. In 1929 Sims received an LL. D. from Bates College.
Columbia University conferred the honorary degree of doctor of laws upon Rear Admiral Sims on 2 June 19
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt referred to by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U. S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which realigned American politics into the Fifth Party System and defined American liberalism throughout the middle third of the 20th century, his third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II. Roosevelt is considered to be one of the most important figures in American history, as well as among the most influential figures of the 20th century. Though he has been subject to much criticism, he is rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U.
S. presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York, to a Dutch American family made well known by Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States and William Henry Aspinwall. FDR attended Groton School, Harvard College, Columbia Law School, went on to practice law in New York City. In 1905, he married his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, they had six children. He won election to the New York State Senate in 1910, served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. Roosevelt was James M. Cox's running mate on the Democratic Party's 1920 national ticket, but Cox was defeated by Warren G. Harding. In 1921, Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness, believed at the time to be polio, his legs became permanently paralyzed. While attempting to recover from his condition, Roosevelt founded the treatment center in Warm Springs, for people with poliomyelitis. In spite of being unable to walk unaided, Roosevelt returned to public office by winning election as Governor of New York in 1928.
He was in office from 1929 to 1933 and served as a reform Governor, promoting programs to combat the economic crisis besetting the United States at the time. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide. Roosevelt took office while the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in the country's history. During the first 100 days of the 73rd United States Congress, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented federal legislation and issued a profusion of executive orders that instituted the New Deal—a variety of programs designed to produce relief and reform, he created numerous programs to provide relief to the unemployed and farmers while seeking economic recovery with the National Recovery Administration and other programs. He instituted major regulatory reforms related to finance and labor, presided over the end of Prohibition, he harnessed radio to speak directly to the American people, giving 30 "fireside chat" radio addresses during his presidency and becoming the first American president to be televised.
The economy having improved from 1933 to 1936, Roosevelt won a landslide reelection in 1936. However, the economy relapsed into a deep recession in 1937 and 1938. After the 1936 election, Roosevelt sought passage of the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937, which would have expanded the size of the Supreme Court of the United States; the bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented passage of the bill and blocked the implementation of further New Deal programs and reforms. Major surviving programs and legislation implemented under Roosevelt include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Social Security. Roosevelt ran for reelection in 1940, his victory made him the only U. S. President to serve for more than two terms. With World War II looming after 1938, Roosevelt gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China as well as the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union while the U. S. remained neutral.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, an event he famously called "a date which will live in infamy", Roosevelt obtained a declaration of war on Japan the next day, a few days on Germany and Italy. Assisted by his top aide Harry Hopkins and with strong national support, he worked with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in leading the Allied Powers against the Axis Powers. Roosevelt supervised the mobilization of the U. S. economy to support the war effort and implemented a Europe first strategy, making the defeat of Germany a priority over that of Japan. He initiated the development of the world's first atomic bomb and worked with the other Allied leaders to lay the groundwork for the United Nations and other post-war institutions. Roosevelt won reelection in 1944 but with his physical health declining during the war years, he died in April 1945, just 11 weeks into his fourth term; the Axis Powers surrendered to the Allies in the months following Roosevelt's death, during the presidency of Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York, to businessman James Roosevelt I and his second wife, Sara Ann Delano. Roosevelt's parents, who were sixth cousins, both came from wealthy old New York families, the Roosevelts, the Aspinwalls and the Delanos, respectively. Roo
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This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/organization/naval-history-and-heritage-command-origins.html".
