History UsefulNotes / FranklinDRoosevelt

* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' #141 (April 1961), a flashback to Superman's debut as ComicBook/{{Superboy}} has the Boy of Steel meeting Roosevelt. Superboy saves FDR from an assassination attempt, plus does several favors for the President. [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] stories (and DC's institution of a [[ComicBookTime floating timeline]]) eventually retconned the President Superboy met to [[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower Eisenhower]]. As such, a 1980s Superboy story (where the hero's accidentally thrown back in time from TheSixties to TheThirties and across dimensional boundaries to [[Franchise/TheDCU Earth-2]]) has Clark see a Smallville newspaper headline mention Roosevelt. (We also later see Earth-2's Pa Kent express support of Roosevelt.) The post-Crisis storyline ''ComicBook/TimeAndTimeAgain'' sees Superman travel back to 1941 during his time-travel experience, which leads to him saving Roosevelt from a potential assassin during a visit to Metropolis of this time, the two men shaking hands and affirming that it's an honor to meet even while Superman wonders if he could have done anything to save Roosevelt's life if he gave the president warning about his health.

* Roosevelt appeared (as TheFaceless) in the FramingStory of ''Film/YankeeDoodleDandy''.

* The SuperSoldier Serum taken by ComicBook/CaptainAmerica was, according to some comics, supposed to go to FDR after it had been tested (however, the inventor was killed after using it on Captain America, and the project had NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup). This would cure the effects of the polio and let him walk on his own again. Cap himself had a bit of hero-worship going on for Roosevelt, and the ''Sentinel of Liberty'' miniseries shows that Steve was employed as a mural painter by the [=WPA=]. Considering that FDR personally presented him with his indestructible round shield, you can understand the good feeling.

* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' #141 (April 1961), a flashback to Superman's debut as ComicBook/{{Superboy}} has the Boy of Steel meeting Roosevelt. Superboy saves FDR from an assassination attempt, plus does several favors for the President. [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] stories (and DC's institution of a [[ComicBookTime floating timeline]]) eventually retconned the President Superboy met to [[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower Eisenhower]]. As such, a 1980s Superboy story (where the hero's accidentally thrown back in time from TheSixties to TheThirties and across dimensional boundaries to [[Franchise/TheDCU Earth-2]]) has Clark see a Smallville newspaper headline mention Roosevelt. (We also later see Earth-2's Pa Kent express support of Roosevelt.)

His early political career saw him elected to the New York State Senate, which was followed by a spell as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a position he would occupy throughout almost the entirety of the UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson administration. In 1920, he was selected as the running-mate to Democratic candidate James M. Cox at that year's presidential election, essentially just so that the Democrats could get the Roosevelt name on the ticket. However, between the unpopularity of Wilson's administration and the fact that the Republicans tended to heavily dominate the White House in this era -- Wilson had been just one of two Democrats elected as president, the other being UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland, between 1860 and 1932 -- the Cox/Roosevelt ticket lost in a [[LandslideElection landslide]]. Afterwards, Roosevelt largely kept a low profile for the rest of the decade, though kept active in New York state politics by acting as an informal advisor to Governor Al Smith. When Smith stepped aside to run for the presidency in 1928, Roosevelt was nominated to succeed him, and won the governorship by just 26,000 votes, before being re-elected much more decisively two years later. The 1932 Democratic convention saw the two former allies contesting the presidential nomination, and Smith was able to get enough support block Roosevelt's nomination until the latter brokered a deal with third-placed candidate John Nance Garner, who dropped out and supported Roosevelt, in exchange for becoming his running-mate.[[note]](This was the last Democratic convention that required a two-thirds majority for the nomination. The rule, which had often resulted in the party picking blandly inoffensive nominees who had little widespread appeal, to say nothing of farcical outcomes such as the 1924 convention requiring ''103 ballots'' to nominate John W. Davis, was dropped at Roosevelt's request for the 1936 election.)[[/note]] Roosevelt handily defeated the severely unpopular Herbert Hoover in the ensuing election.

Roosevelt led the United States through both TheGreatDepression and most of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever left their mark on the nation. By the end of his life, the USA had become the premier world superpower, a position it maintains to this very day, and his policies--in peace ''and'' war--played no small part in ushering in that transformation. As a liberal, Roosevelt is credited with initiating a shift in American politics, with his presidency taking the Democratic Party in a more progressive, left-wing direction, and in the process bringing about a polarization that eventually led to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party taking their modern-day positions.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials of FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States. The tenth president from the Democratic Party, he was also the longest-tenured president in American history, serving three full terms and being just over a month into a fourth at the time of his death. Roosevelt was president from [[TheThirties 1933]] to [[TheForties 1945]], succeeding UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover, and was followed by his Vice President, UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman, who completed FDR's fourth term after his death in office. No prior president had even won a third term, and no president since has challenged--or will be ''able'' to challenge, thanks to the 22nd Amendment--his length of service (barring the ''very'' unlikely event of said amendment being repealed). He is generally considered in the top three of all US Presidents, alongside UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln.

Roosevelt led the United States through TheGreatDepression and most of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever left their mark on the nation. By the end of his life, the USA had become the premier world superpower, a position it maintains to this very day, and his policies--in peace ''and'' war--played no small part in bringing about that transformation. As a liberal, FDR's presidency is credited with initiating a shift in American politics, taking the Democratic Party in a more progressive left-wing direction, and in the process bringing about a polarization that eventually led to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party taking their modern-day positions.

Roosevelt led the United States through TheGreatDepression and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever left their mark on the nation. By the end of his life, the USA had become the premier world superpower, a position it maintains to this very day, and his policies--in peace ''and'' war--played no small part in bringing about that transformation. As a liberal, FDR's presidency is credited with initiating a shift in American politics, taking the Democratic Party in a more progressive left-wing direction, and in the process bringing about a polarization that eventually led to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party taking their modern-day positions.

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. At the time he was diagnosed with polio, but he is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got them. It took him until the end of the year to recover from the illness, and he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his malady secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and utilizing his truly impressive upper-body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances, through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]] In spite of FeigningHealthiness, most of the public knew of his struggles with polio. In the 1932 campaign it greatly helped humanize him to the public, seeing his suffering with polio as akin to their own suffering in the Depression.