FDR Dies

Setting the scene

Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, at 3:35 p.m. at his Warm Springs, Georgia, cottage, of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. He was 63 and in his fourth term as president. Roosevelt had been in declining health for months—he had hypertension, heart disease, and was exhausted from the war. At Yalta in February, observers noted his frailty. He went to Warm Springs for rest on March 30. On April 12, while sitting for a portrait, he complained of a 'terrific headache' and collapsed.

What happened

Roosevelt's death shocked the nation and world. He had been president for 12 years, leading America through the Great Depression and most of World War II. He died 23 days before Hitler's suicide and Germany's surrender, and four months before Japan's surrender and the war's end. Vice President Harry S. Truman, who had been vice president for only 82 days and had met with Roosevelt twice, was sworn in at 7:09 p.m. that evening. Truman knew nothing of the atomic bomb project.

Why it still matters

Roosevelt's death marked the end of an era. He was the only president elected four times and had transformed the presidency and federal government through the New Deal. His leadership during WWII made the U.S. the world's dominant power. His death raised questions about what might have been different at the war's end and start of the Cold War had he lived. Roosevelt was buried at Hyde Park, New York, on April 15. His death, so close to victory, made him a martyr to the cause he had led, and he remains ranked by historians as one of America's three greatest presidents.

Background

He never saw German surrender.