President of the Day

Who was the first female member of a presidential cabinet?

Roosevelt chose Frances Perkins as his secretary of labor, and she served in that position for his entire tenure as president. Roosevelt had appointed her to the position of New York industrial commissioner when he was governor. Perkins and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes were the only members of Roosevelt's cabinet to stay on the entire tenure of his presidency.

Who tried to kill President Roosevelt before he was officially sworn in as president?

Guiseppe Zangara, a thirty-two-year-old Italian-born bricklayer, tried to assassinate President-Elect Roosevelt in Miami, Florida. Apparently, he had also thought about killing President Hoover. Zangara was motivated in his violent actions by the belief that the president was responsible for massive unemployment and for his own physical ailments. Zangara missed Roosevelt, but did kill Chicago mayor Anton Cermak and wounded several others. Cermak allegedly told FDR on the way to the hospital: "I'm glad it was me and not you, Mr. President."

After a failed turn in politics, what disease crippled Roosevelt?

In 1921, Roosevelt contracted polio, a disease that crippled his lower body. It took at least three years of rehabilitation before his body recovered some feeling and movement. But he never regained full strength and mobility in his lower body.

Which former presidents was FDR most closely related to?

FDR was a fifth cousin of former president Theodore Roosevelt, a man he admired greatly. FDR also was related quite distantly to presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Zachary Taylor.

Did he marry?

Franklin Roosevelt married his distant cousin Eleanor Roosevelt on March 17, 1905, when FDR was twenty-three and Eleanor was twenty. Eleanor Roosevelt became one of the most significant First Ladies in the history of the United States. She contributed mightily to the president's policies. After FDR's death, President Harry Truman appointed her to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations.

From The Handy Presidents Answer Book, Second Edition by David L. Hudson, Jr., JD., (c) Visible Ink Press(R) More than 1,600 things you never knew about our nation's leaders