ROOSEVELT, FRANKLIN D.

born Jan. 30, 1882, Hyde Park, N.Y., U.S. died April 12, 1945, Warm Springs, Ga. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1937. in full Franklin Delano Roosevelt, byname FDR 32nd president of the United States (193345). The only president elected to the office four times, Roosevelt led the United States through two of the greatest crises of the 20th century: the Great Depression and World War II. In so doing, he greatly expanded the powers of the federal government through a series of programs and reforms known as the New Deal, and he served as the principal architect of the successful effort to rid the world of German National Socialism and Japanese militarism. Frank Freidel The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica