FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, 32ND PRESIDENT - Franklin Roosevelt was the only President to be elected that was disabled and used a wheelchair. For public appearances, however, he used braces to allow him to stand and walk with assistance for very short distances. He also was the only President to be elected to four terms as President. For his first term, he was sworn into office on March 4, 1933. For his second term, he was inaugurated on January 30, 1937, being the first President to be elected after passage of the 20th amendment to the U.S. Constitution which changed the inaugural date to January 20th. He was re-elected and sworn in for a third term on January 20, 1941 and was re-elected and sworn in for a fourth term on January 20, 1945. He was the last and only president to serve more than two terms since the 22nd Amendment ratified in 1951 henceforth restricted Presidents to serving only two terms. Along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, he is ranked among historians as among our three greatest Presidents for successfully guiding the country through both the Great Depression and World War II. Certainly, he left as great of a mark on the country as any other President. Meanwhile, his wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, is often as the greatest woman in America's history, helping to champion many of the social causes that President Roosevelt came to support. After his death, President Truman appointed her as the first U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. In this role, lhe led the fight for the adoption of the International Declaration of Human Rights. If you are visiting Washington, D.C., be sure to visit the FDR Memorial next to the tidal basin. It is one of Washington's newest but most spectacular memorials/monuments.

HERBERT HOOVER, 31ST PRESIDENT - Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1929. His was the first inauguration to be recorded by a talking newsreel. Soon after becoming President, the country experienced a collapse of the stock market and entered into the Great Depression. For this reason, he is often associated with the Great Depression. In fact, however, as Secretary of Commerce under Calvin Coolidge, Hoover had warned of the financial market excesses that led to the Stock Market Collapse and the Great Depression. He also was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, humanitarian in our nation's history. Having used his mining engineering education to make himself a multi-millionaire at a young age, during World War I he spearheaded and personally financed much of the Belgium relief effort for civilians displaced by the war. He was also an organizational genius so that, even after his presidency, future presidents sought him out for his advice and help. Unfortunately, he was not a great public communicator with the result that with the beginning of the Great Depression he was unable to provide the public, morale leadership that the nation's needed at the time.