Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Democrat Vice Presidential nominee, and Governor of New York before being elected to the Presidency in 1932. President Roosevelt took office in the midst of the Great Depression, and pursued a sweeping domestic agenda known as the New Deal. He created Social Security, enacted banking reforms, and presided over a massive expansion of the Federal bureaucracy. President Roosevelt also led the United States through the Second World War, mobilizing the Nation after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and serving as Commander-in-Chief throughout the Allied effort to defeat Nazism and fascism. President Roosevelt also played a central role in creating postwar institutions such as the United Nations. He died in 1945, just weeks before the Allied Victory in Europe. He was the only President elected to four terms.