Franklin D. Roosevelt was born.
Franklin D. Roosevelt . He is often rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U.S. Presidents , along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln . He entered politics in 1910 , serving in the New York State Senate , and then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson . In the 1932 presidential election , Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency . Assisted by his top aide Harry Hopkins , and with very strong national support , he worked closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in leading the Allies against Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan in World War II .