Timeline of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Life

The Roosevelts in the Living Room at Springwood; (left to right), Elliott, Eleanor, FDR, Franklin Jr, James, John, Sara, and Anna.

FDR Library Photo

Early Life & Marriage

1882

• January 30. Franklin Delano Roosevelt born in Hyde Park, New York to James and Sara Roosevelt.

1896

• Franklin Roosevelt enters Groton preparatory school at age 14.

1900

• Matriculates in Harvard College.
• December 8. His father, James Roosevelt, dies.

1901

• Theodore Roosevelt is elected 26th President of the Unites States and serves for two terms.

1903

• Receives his A.B. from Harvard College.

1904

• Enters Columbia Law School.

1905

• March 17. Marries Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. The couple spend their honeymoon in Europe.

1907

• Admitted to the New York bar, and becomes clerk in the law firm of Carter, Ledyard, and Milburn.

1909

• Member, Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission.

Early Political Career (1910-1920)

1910

• Elected to the New York State Senate from the 26th District (Dutchess, Columbia, and Putnam counties).
• Becomes member of the law firm of Marvin, Hooker, and Roosevelt.

1911

• Degree of Master Mason conferred by Holland Lodge No. 8, New York City.

1912

• Visits Panama Canal.
• Reelected to the New York State Senate.

1913

• March 17. Sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson administration.

1914

• Defeated in Democratic primary, for the U.S. Senate by James W. Gerard.
• July 28, 1914. World War I begins when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

1915

• Member, National Commission, Panama-Pacific Exposition.
• FDR’s home in Hyde Park, Springwood, is remodeled and enlarged to accommodate his growing family.

1917

• Elected Overseer of Harvard University.
• January 21 - February 7. Undertakes inspection tour of Haiti and Santo Domingo.
• Promotes deployment of 230-mile long minefield between Orkney Islands and Norway designed to bottle up German U-boat fleet in the North Sea.

1918

• July-September. Tours American naval bases in the European Theatre.
• November 11, 1918. World War I ends. Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies.

1919

• January-February. Travels to Europe to supervise dismantling of naval establishment.

1920

• July 6. Nominated for Vice-President at Democratic National Convention in San Francisco on ticket with James N. Cox.
• August 6. Resigns as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
• November 2. Defeated in election for Vice-President.

Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers a speech as candidate for the Vice Presidency from the terrace at Springwood, August 9, 1920.

FDR Library Photo

Polio & Political Comeback (1921-1928)

1921

• Returns to active work in the law firm of Emmet, Marvin & Roosevelt, and at the same time becomes the vice-president in charge of the New York office of the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, the third largest surety bonding company in the country.
• August. Stricken with poliomyelitis at Campobello, New Brunswick, Canada. Transferred to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, for the start of a long recuperation process, largely unsuccessful. He never again walked unaided.

1922

• Joins United European Investors.
• Becomes president of the American Construction Council.

1923

• Made member of the Board of Trustees of Vassar College.
• Elected to Board of Directors of the Holland Society in New York.
• Named national chairman of fund-raising for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
• Named a delegate to the New York State Democratic State Convention.

1924

• July. Nominates Governor Alfred E. Smith for president at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
• Forms new law practice, 0'Connor and Roosevelt.
• October. First visits Warm Springs, Georgia, whose warm waters were reputed to have curative powers.

1925

• Writes columns for the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph and the Atlanta Constitution.

1926

• Publishes his first book, Whither Bound.

1927

• Forms the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, a therapy center for the treatment of victims of infantile paralysis.

1928

• June 27. Nominates Governor Alfred E. Smith for president for the second time at Democratic National Convention in Houston.
• October 2. New York State Democrats nominate FDR for governor.
• November 6. Elected governor of New York.

Governor of New York (1929-1932)

1929

• March 12. In special message on water power development, FDR advocates state construction and ownership of dams and power plants, and warns private utilities that state might construct its own transmission lines if they do not transmit state-generated electricity at reasonable rates.
• April 3. In his first half-hour radio address, FDR attacks Republican Party for not living up to its platform; address is a forerunner of his "fireside chats."
• April 10. Signs legislation to aid farmers by reducing contributions of rural counties to state highway con-construction costs, and having the state assume a greater share of rural education costs.
• June 19. Chief Marshal at Harvard Tercentenary; elected honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa; given honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
• July 29. Visits Clinton Prison at Dannemora following riot there (July 22), and orders investigation of conditions of prisons.

1930

• January 6. Recommends to the legislature further improvements in prison administration, including the creation of a full time parole board.
• November 4. Reelected governor of New York.

1931

• January 7. Recommends examination and revision of the Old Age Pension Law to create a system based on contributions by the employee.
• January 14. Louis M. Howe and James A. Farley form "Friends of Roosevelt" and open New York City office to promote FDR's candidacy for president.
• March 25. Recommends that the legislature create a commission to investigate unemployment compensation systems and submit a plan "for accomplishing some kind of scientific unemployment insurance."
• May. Appoints trustees to the New York Power Authority. They initiate studies into the St. Lawrence Power project, low cost rural electrification and the coordination of all power sources in the State.
• August 28. In address to special session of the legislature, recommends creation of a Temporary Emergency Relief Administration and a work relief program.
• October 26. Urges voters to support Hewitt amendment which would provide funds to reforest submarginal farmlands.

1932

• January 6. In annual message to the legislature, calls for elimination of unsound banking practices and revision of laws relating to sale of securities to the public.
• March. Forms the "brains trust," a group of Columbia University professors, to advise him on national economic and social issues for the forthcoming presidential campaign.
• April 7. Delivers "forgotten man" speech, keynote of his preconvention campaign, in an address to the Governors' Conference.
• July 1. Democratic Party nominates him for president on the fourth ballot at its convention in Chicago. John Nance Garner is vice-president.
• July 2. Flies from Albany to Chicago to accept nomination; pledges "a new deal for the American people.”
• August 6. Summons Mayor James J. Walker of New York City to a public hearing concerning his fitness to remain in office. Walker resigns September 1 after State Supreme Court upholds the Governor’s right to remove him from office.
• November 8. Elected president, defeating Herbert Hoover.

Depression era breadlines. In the absence of substantial Gov't relief programs during 1932, free food was distributed with private funds in some urban centers to large numbers of the unemployed.

FDR Library Photo

Presidency, First Term (1933-1936)

1933

• February 15. Unhurt in assassination attempt by Guiseppe Zangara in Miami, Florida.
• March 4. FDR inaugurated; addresses the nation on his plans to fight the depression stating that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Also pledges the United States to the Good Neighbor policy.
• March. Calls a special session of Congress and proclaims a bank holiday to begin March 6. Congress sits for "hundred days" from March 9 to June 16 and enacts into law the principal New Deal measures.
• March 12. Delivers first radio "fireside chat" in which he discusses the banking crisis.
• March 20. Signs the Economy Act, reducing the salaries of federal employees.
• March 22. Signs Beer-Wine Revenue Act which amends the Volstead Act to legalize the manufacture and sale of beer and wine.
• April 5. Issues executive order establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps.
• April 10. Recommends to Congress the creation of a Tennessee Valley Authority.
• April 19. Issues executive order embargoing gold shipments, effectively taking the United States off the gold standard.
• May 12. Signs the Agricultural "Adjustment Act.”
• June 13. Signs Home Owners Refinancing Act which creates Home Owners Loan Corporation to refinance home mortgage debts for non-farm owners.
• June 16. Signs Banking Act which creates Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for guaranteeing individual bank deposits.
• June 16. Signs the National Industrial Recovery Act, which establishes the National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration.
• July 3. Rejects currency stabilization plan proposed by World Economic Conference. Action seen as a blow to international cooperation and a move toward isolation.
• August 5. Sets up the National Labor Board, as authorized by NIRA, to protect the right of labor to engage in collective bargaining.
• November 9. Issues executive order establishing the Civil Works Administration, an emergency relief pro-gram to employ four million jobless on federal, state and local make-work projects.
• November 16. Recognizes the Soviet Union.

1934

• January 31. Issues a proclamation setting the price of gold at $35.00 an ounce. Signs the Farm Mortgage Refinancing Act.
• April 12. Senate votes an inquiry into manufacture and traffic in arms. The hearings of Senator Nye's committee which follow strengthen isolationism and support for the neutrality laws.
• April 13. Enacts Johnson Debt Default Act which prohibits loans to governments in default on obligations to the United States government. Bill does not persuade debtor countries to pay.
• April 28. Signs the Homeowners Loan Act.
• June 6. Signs the Securities Exchange Act which creates the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• June 12. Signs the Trade Agreements Act which authorizes him to cut tariffs by up to 50% for those nations that accorded the U.S. the most favored nation treatment.
• June 28. Signs the Federal Farm Bankruptcy Act.
• June 28. Signs National Housing Act which establishes Federal Housing Administration.

1935

• January 4. Asks Congress to enact legislation to assist the needy and unemployed.
• April 8. Signs Emergency Relief Appropriation Act which provides for large-scale national works program. Major agencies of the program are the Public Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration, renamed Work Projects Administration in 1939.
• May 1. Sets up Resettlement Administration to improve conditions of impoverished farm families.
• May 11. Creates Rural Electrification Administration to bring electricity to isolated rural areas not ser-viced by private utilities.
• May 22. Vetoes veterans' bonus bill.
• May 27. Supreme Court rules NRA unconstitutional in Schechter Corp. vs. United States.
• June 26. Sets up National Youth Administration to provide jobs for youths aged 16 to 25.
• July 5. Signs the Wagner Act, which set up the National Labor Relations Board.
• August 14. Signs the Social Security Act.
• August 26. Signs Public Utilities Act which requires all public utilities to register with SEC and limits them to the simplest form of incorporation.
• August 31. Signs the Neutrality Act which imposes a mandatory arms embargo against all belligerents.
• October 5. Proclaims U.S. neutrality following Italy's invasion of Ethiopia.

1936

• March 2. Signs Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act which replaces AAA, invalidated by the Supreme Court on January 6.
• June 23. Roosevelt is nominated for a second term at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Running mate is again John N. Garner.
• August. Delivers speech at Chautauqua, New York in which he says, "I hate war."
• November 3. Roosevelt is reelected, defeating Alfred M. Land on of Kansas.
• December. Attends and addresses the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace in Buenos Aires.

Presidency, Second Term (1937-1940)

1937

• January 20. Roosevelt inaugurated for second term, addresses the nation on the needs of the one-third of the people who are "...ill-ho used, ill-clad, ill-nourished."
• February 5. Responding to invalidation by the Supreme Court of major New Deal social and economic legislation, FDR requests Congress for legislation empowering him to appoint six additional justices to the Supreme Court, and make other changes in the federal court system.
• May 1. Signs Neutrality Act of 1937 which permitted sale of certain commodities to belligerent countries on a "cash and carry" basis.
• June 1. Asks Congress for legislation to close tax loop-holes used "by a minority of very rich individuals."
• July 7. Fighting breaks out between Japanese and Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Peking.
• July 20. FDR in conference with Congressional leaders agrees to shelve the judicial reorganization plan, thus ending his attempt to "pack" the Supreme Court.
• July 22. Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act sets up the Farm Security Administration and provides for low interest loans for tenants to purchase farms.
• August 26. Signs modified Judicial Procedure Reform Act.
• September 2. Signs the National Housing (Wagner-Steagall) Act which creates the U.S. Housing Authority.
• September 5. Warns American citizens in China that they stay at their own risk.
• September 14. Forbids, by executive order, Government owned ships to transport arms and munitions to China and Japan.
• October 5. Delivers speech in Chicago calling for a "quarantine" of aggressor nations.
• October 12. Calls special session of Congress for November 15, urging legislation on maximum hours, minimum wages and other matters. Congress adjourns December 21 without adopting any of his recommendations.
• December 13. Responding to the sinking of the United States gunboat, Panay, by Japanese planes the previous day,, Roosevelt sends a memo to the Secretary of State ordering him to tell the Japanese ambassador of his shock and concern over "indiscriminate bombing of American and other non-Chinese vessels on the Yangtse..."

1938

• January 6. States his opposition to the Ludlow amendment which calls for a popular referendum on a declaration of war unless the United States was invaded.
• January 28. Asks for a billion dollar appropriation to begin construction of a two-ocean navy.
• January 29. Initiates the work of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to foster research and treatment of polio.
• February 16. Signs the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938.
• April 14. Asks Congress for additional emergency recovery aid to combat the business recession that began in August 1937.
• Apri1 30. Appoints Myron Taylor to Intergovernmental Committee on Political Refugees.
• June 14. Congress passes Minimum Wages and Hours Bill.
• June 16. Congress establishes the Temporary National Economic Committee to determine the effects of monopoly on the economy and to improve antitrust policy.
• June 21. Signs the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act aimed at dealing with the recession.
• June 24. Delivers fireside chat on party primaries; calls for the election of liberal candidates who recognize that "new conditions...cal1 for new remedies."
• June 25. Signs the Fair Labor Standards Act. which stipulates minimum wages and maximum hours for businesses engaged in interstate commerce.
• June 30. Lays cornerstone at New York World's Fair site.
• July 1. Establishes the Federal Works Agency which consolidates five agencies: Public Buildings Administration, Public Roads Administration, Public Works Administration, Works Progress Administration, and U.S. Housing Authority.
• July 7. Begins transcontinental speaking tour; returns to Washington August 12.
• July 14. Proposes world disarmament conference in 1939.
• August. Following through on his speech of June 24, FDR campaigns against "reactionary” legislators seeking reelection. These include Senators George of Georgia and Tydings of Maryland, and Representative 0 'Connor of New York. The "purge” fails, with loss of prestige for FDR.
• September 26-27. Urges peaceful solution to the Czechoslovak crisis.
• October 7. Announces that counter-espionage measures in the U.S. will be intensified.
• November 14. Summons principal military and civilian advisors to a White House conference on rearmament. His objectives include production of 10,000 combat aircraft by 1940.
• November 15. On receiving the news of Nazi atrocities of “Kristallnacht," FDR denounces German treatment of the Jews; orders U.S. ambassador to return home for” consultations."
• December 27. Announces plan to provide pilot training to college students to qualify them as civilian reserve pilots.

1939

• January 4. Urges program of intensified national defense in State of the Union address.
• January 27. Discloses that French purchase of modern military planes has been authorized.
• April 3. Administrative Reorganization Act seeks to increase government efficiency by regrouping or simplifying many federal agencies to reduce or eliminate overlapping and waste.
• April 4. Signs the emergency appropriation bill for national defense.
• April 14. Pledges full support for any American nation which is attacked by hemispheric outsiders.
• April 15. Sends message to Hitler and Mussolini seeking formal assurance that they will not invade 31 independent nations.
• April 30. Becomes first president to appear on television, addressing the opening ceremonies of the
• New York World’s Fair.
• June. Entertains the King and Queen of Great Britain.
• July 5. Transfers the Joint Army -Navy Board, the Joint Army-Navy Munitions Board and several other military procurement agencies from the service departments into the newly-established Executive Office of the President. Makes Chiefs of Staff directly responsible to him.
• July 14. Formally requests Congress for revision of U.S. Neutrality Law.
• July 19. Invites Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees to confer on methods of speeding up immigration from Germany.
• August 24. Sends peace appeals to King Victor Emmanuel, President Moscicki of Poland and Hitler.
• August 25. President Moscicki replies indicating he was ready to negotiate directly with Germany; President Roosevelt sends second appeal for peace to Hitler.
• September 1. Germany attacks Poland.
• September 3. In fireside chat on the war in Europe, FDR says the nation would remain neutral but that he cannot ask that “every American remain neutral in thought as well.”
• September 8: Proclaims state of limited national emergency.
• September 21. Calls special session of Congress to repeal arms embargo.
• October 11. Receives letter dated August 2, 1939 from Albert Einstein which discusses the possibility of an atomic bomb. Creates President's Advisory Committee on Uranium the following day to explore the potentialities of atomic energy.
• November 4. Congress passes Neutrality Act of 1939 which repeals the arms embargo and places arms sales on a cash and carry basis.
• November 19. Speaks at the laying of the cornerstone of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, NY.

1940

• February 9. Sends Under Secretary of State, Sumner Welles, to Europe to gather information on the war aims of the belligerents and the possibilities for peace. Welles reports on March 28.
• May 10-13. Germany invades Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and France.
• May 16. FDR issues call for annual production of 50,000 planes.
• May 29. Appeals to Mussolini to use his influence for peace.
• June 10. Denounces Italy for its attack on France: "the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor."
• June 13. Promises redoubled efforts to aid France and the Allies.
• June 20. Appoints Republicans Henry L. Stimson Secretary of War and Frank Knox Secretary of the Navy.
• June 22. France signs armistice with Germany at Compiegne.
• June 22. FDR overrides advice of Joint Board of the Army and Navy and decides to extend full military assistance to Great Britain.
• June 28. Alien Registration Act (Smith Act) makes it unlawful for any person to advocate the overthrow of any government in the United States by force, and to organize or become a member of any group dedicated to teaching such doctrine.
• July 17. Accepts Democratic Party's "draft" for the presidency and agrees to run for an unprecedented third term. Demands Henry Wallace as vice-president.
• July 20. Approves bill authorizing two-ocean navy.
• August 18. Meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King to plan joint defense measures. Joint Defense Board established.
• September 2. Approves "destroyers for bases" deal with Great Britain.
• September 16. Signs Burke-Wadsworth Act-first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
• September 27. Japan signs a three-power pact with Germany and Italy, pledging mutual assistance in the event of war with a nation not then a belligerent.
• October 30. Delivers campaign speech in Boston in which he states that no American boys are going to be sent into any foreign wars.
• November 5. Elected to a third term, defeating Wendell Willkie.
• December 17. At press conference FOR proposes "lend-leasing" arms to Great Britain.
• December 20. Sets up the Office of Production Management with William S. Knudsen as director to coordinate defense production and speed up "aid short of war" to Britain and other anti-Axis nations.
• December 29. In fireside chat, he pledges that the United States will become the "arsenal of democracy."

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt return to the White House following his election to a third term, January 20, 1941.

FDR Library Photo

Presidency, Third Term (1941-1944)

1941

• January 6. In state of the union message recommends lend lease aid to Great Britain and enunciates the four freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
• January 27-March 29. As authorized by FOR, the U.S. military holds secret talks in Washington with their British counterparts to discuss strategy for war. They decide that if they become involved in a war with Germany and Japan, the concentration of force should be on Germany first.
• March 11. Signs lend lease bill.
• May 6. FDR extends lend-lease aid to China.
• May 27. Declares "unlimited national emergency" in Pan American Day Address.
• June 14. Orders freezing of all German and Italian assets in the United States.
• June 15. Creates Fair Employment Practices Committee to prevent discrimination in defense work.
• June 22. Germany invades U.S.S.R.
• June 24. Releases Russian credits and promises U.S. aid.
• June 28. Establishes the Office of Scientific Research and Development to coordinate the U.S. scientific effort, including radar, proximity fuse, sonar and the atomic bomb. Development of the bomb was transferred later to the Army under the Manhattan District project.
• July 1. Directs Admiral Stark to order American forces to Iceland to prevent occupation and use by Germany as a base against Western Hemisphere. U.S. forces land there July 7.
• July 9. FDR requests the Secretaries of War and Navy to explore at once overall prod action requirements needed to defeat potential enemies. In response the Army-Navy Joint Board produces the Victory Production Program in September 1941.
• July 24. Japanese military occupies French Indochina.
• July 26. Nationalizes the armed forces of the Philippines and places them under General Douglas MacArthur, who is named commander-in-chief of U.S. forces in the Far East.
• July 26. United States embargoes gas, oil, and metal shipments to Japan and freezes Japanese assets in the U.S.
• August 9-12. Roosevelt and Churchill meet at Atlantic Conference aboard USS Augusta at Argentia Bay in Newfoundland.
• August 14. United States and Great Britain jointly issue the Atlantic Charter.
• September 7. His mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, dies at age 86.
• September 11. Responding to the German submarine attack on the USS Greer , declares that U.S. will protect vessels of any nationality "engaged in commerce in our defensive waters."
• October 9. Requests arming of U.S. merchant ships.
• November 17. Signs bill amending Neutrality Act to allow American merchant ships to be armed.
• November 17. Ambassador Joseph Grew warns Washing ton of the possibility of a sudden attack by Japan.
• November 20. Japanese-American discussions begin in Washington between Hull and Ambassador Nomura and special envoy Kurusu.
• November 25. Japanese carrier force bound for Pearl Harbor leaves the Kurile Islands.
• November 26. Hull proposes to the Japanese (with FDR's approval) that Japan withdraw its troops from China and Indochina and conclude a multilateral non-aggression pact.
• December 1. Japan publicly rejects Cordell Hull's peace proposals.
• December 6. FDR appeals directly to Emperor Hirohito to use his influence to preserve peace and to" with-draw Japanese troops from Indochina.
• December 7. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
• December 8. Asks Congress to declare war on Japan.
• December 11. Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
• December 22. Churchill arrives for the first Washington conference. He and FDR decide on "Germany first" war strategy.
• December 27. Rationing begins with auto tires.

1942

• January 1. United Nations declaration signed by 26 nations.
• January 2. United States forces abandon Manila to the Japanese and retire to Bataan and Corregidor Island in Manila Bay where they surrender on May 6.
• January 6. Calls for production in 1942 of 60,000 planes, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 anti-aircraft guns, 6,000, 000 deadweight tons of merchant ships.
• January 12. A twelve-man National War Labor Board is established to settle disputes by mediation and arbitration.
• January 16. Establishes the War Production Board with Donald Nelson as head.
• January 30. Signs Emergency Price Control Act, which establishes the Office of Price Administration.
• February 20. Signs Executive Order 9066 which orders the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the Pacific coast to relocation camps inland.
• April 18. Establishes by executive order a nine-man War Manpower Commission for more effective use of manpower resources.
• April 18. Carrier-launched U.S. 3-25 bombers led by Major General James H. Doolittle raid Tokyo.
• April 27. Outlines drastic 7 point program to combat inflation, including control of incomes, wages, prices and distribution.
• May 29-June1. Meets with Russian foreign minister, V.M. Molotov, and assures him of efforts for a second front in 1942, over the protests of General Marshall.
• June 3-6. Japan handed its first major defeat at the battle of Midway, which checks the Japanese advance across the central Pacific.
• June 19-25. Meets with Churchill at second Washing ton Conference and discusses the timing of the projected cross-channel invasion and Anglo-American cooperation in the development of the atomic bomb. Both men agree that American forces should become engaged in the European or African theater in 1942.
• July 16. In his instructions to Harry Hopkins, General Marshall and Admiral King for their conference in London, he gives highest importance to American ground forces engaging the Germans in 1942, while opposing an all-out effort in the Pacific against Japan.
• July 23-24. FDR decides to execute TORCH, the invasion of north Africa.
• August 7. United States launches first major offensive against the Japanese at Guadalcanal.
• August 14. Names General Dwight D. Eisenhower commander for the North African invasion.
• September. Sends Eleanor Roosevelt to Great Britain to visit American troops stationed there.
• October 2. Establishes Office of Economic Stabilization with James F. Byrnes as head.
• November 4. British forces defeat Germans at El Alamein.
• November 8. U.S. and British forces under the command of General Eisenhower land in North Africa.
• November 19. Russian offensive against the Germans on the Stalingrad front commences.
• December 4. Work Projects Administration given "honorable discharge" by Roosevelt.

1943

• January 14-24. Meets Churchill at the Casablanca Conference in North Africa, the first president to leave the United States in wartime. At the conference, enunciates "unconditional surrender" formula, agrees to invasion of Sicily and strategic bombing in Europe.
• February 9. United States Marines complete conquest of Guadalcanal.
• April 8. Issues "hold-the-line" executive order freezing prices, salaries and wages.
• April 20. Confers with President Avila Camacho in Monterrey, Mexico on wartime and postwar cooperation.
• May 12-25. Third Washing ton Conference plans global strategy and the opening of the second front in Europe.
• May 27. Issues executive order creating the Office of War Mobilization.
• May 27. Orders that all contracts with war industries forbid racial discrimination.
• July 10-August 17. Invasion and conquest of Sicily by Anglo-American forces.
• August 14-24. First Quebec Conference reaches agreement on stepping up military operations in the Far East.
• August. Dispatches Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt on a 25,000 mile trip to installations in the South Pacific war zone.
• September 3. British Eighth Army launches invasion of Italy.
• September 8. Italian government of Marshall Badoglio surrenders unconditionally to the Allies.
• September 9. U.S. Fifth Army lands at Salerno.
• November 10. Allied Control Commission for Italy established.
• November 24. Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands is taken.
• November 22-26. First phase of Cairo Conference.
• November 28-December 2. Roosevelt, Church ill and Stalin meet at Teheran and agree that the invasion of Normandy is main objective in 1944.
• December 2-7. Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek meet at Cairo.
• December 24. Roosevelt in Christmas radio message announces the appointment of General Eisenhower as supreme commander of Overlord-the invasion of France.

1944

• January 22. Creates War Refugee Board.
• January 29. Russians announce the Moscow-Leningrad area cleared of German troops.
• January 31-February 23. United States forces take Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands.
• March 1-April 22. United States troops invade the Admiralty Islands and take Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea.
• March 27. Commander Howard G. Bruenn, consultant in cardiology, begins treatment of FDR.
• June 4. U.S. Fifth Army liberates Rome.
• June 6. Allied forces invade France. FDR goes on radio to announce cross-Channel invasion is under way; leads nation in prayer for speedy victory.
• June 15. U.S. ground forces invade Saipan in the Mariana Islands.
• June 22. Signs Servicemen's Readjustment Act, known as G.I. Bill of Rights, which offers veterans grants for education and other assistance.
• July 1-22. Bretton Woods conference on international economic problems.
• July 19-21. Roosevelt nominated for a fourth term. Drops Wallace and accepts Harry Truman as vice-president.
• July 26-29. Confers in Hawaii with General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz on strategy in the Pacific.
• August 9. United States forces take Guam, completing the conquest of the Marianas.
• August 21. Dumbarton Oaks Conference convenes in Washington, D.C. to discuss structure of the future United Nations.
• August 25-September 11. France, Belgium and Luxembourg liberated by General Eisenhower’s Allied Forces.
• September 12. U.S. forces enter Germany.
• September 11-16. Meets with Churchill at Second Quebec Conference to formulate plans for postwar Germany.
• September 2. Denounces Republican attacks on his dog Fala in campaign speech at Teamsters' Union dinner.
• October. On the 21st and 27th, respectively, FDR campaigns in an open car in cold rain in New York City and Philadelphia to dispel rumors he is in poor health.
• October 20. General MacArthur leads United States forces in the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines.
• November 7. Roosevelt reelected to a fourth term, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.
• December 16-26. German counteroffensive-"Battle of-the Bulge"-is checked, but Americans suffer 77,000 casualties.

Presidency, Fourth Term (1945)

1945

• January 12-23. Russians reach Oder River.
• January 20. Roosevelt inaugurated for fourth time.
• January 30-February 2. Malta Conference.
• February 4-11. Roosevelt, Church ill and Stalin meet at Yalta and discuss postwar settlements. Stalin agrees to enter the war in the Far East once the conflict in Europe is over.
• February 19. United States Marines land on Iwo Jima in the Bonin Islands and secure it March 16.
• February 23. Manila is liberated.
• March 1. Addresses Congress on the results of the Yalta Conference.
• March 7. United States troops seize the bridge at Remagen and cross the Rhine River.
• March 13. Meets with delegates to the organization conference for the United Nations scheduled to meet in San Francisco.
• March 29. Travels to Warm Springs for rest and recuperation.
• April 1. U.S. Tenth Army invades Okinawa, main island of the Ryukyus, 360 miles southwest of Japan.
• April 11. U.S. Ninth Army reaches the Elbe River.
• April 12. Roosevelt dies at Warm Spring, Georgia.
• April 15. Roosevelt is buried in the Rose Garden of his home at Hyde Park, New York.