May 2, 1997: The Franklin Delano Memorial is dedicated, off the Tidal Basin between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials in Washington, D.C. President Bill Clinton speaks at the dedication ceremony.
Roosevelt served as the 32nd President of the United States, from March 4, 1933 until his death on April 12, 1945, winning 4 Presidential elections. After his death, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States limited Presidents to 2 terms.
He guided the United States of America through its worst economic crisis in its history, the Great Depression, with his "New Deal"; and the greatest foreign-policy crisis, World War II, beating both Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan.
Had he guided the nation through only one of those, he would still have been remembered as one of the Top 10 Presidents in history. Having guided it through both, he is 1 of the 3 greatest, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
The memorial consists of four outdoor "rooms," one for each of FDR's terms of office. The main statue is of a seated Roosevelt, with his dog, a Scottish terrier named Fala, alongside him, as seen in the photo above. Other sculptures depict scenes from the Depression, such as listening to one of his "fireside chats" on the radio and waiting in a bread line. A bronze statue of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt standing before the United Nations emblem honors her dedication to the UN after her husband's death. It is the only Presidential memorial to depict a First Lady.
Like the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorial's, FDR's Memorial is inscribed with words from some of his speeches. The one in the photo above is an adaptation of words from his address to the White House Correspondents' Dinner on March 15, 1941, before America got into World War II:
Nazi forces are not seeking mere modifications in colonial maps or in minor European boundaries. They openly seek the destruction of all elective systems of government on every continent, including our own. They seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers who have seized power by force. Yes, these men and their hypnotized followers call this a new order. It is not new, and it is not order."
He was right then. Anyone saying it of such men today, like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, would be right today.
James A. Farley was the last surviving member of the FDR Cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Farley, an aide of his as Governor of New York, was both Postmaster General (which is no longer a Cabinet position) and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the 1st 2 terms. He lived until 1976.
It is a little surprising that, especially given his famous flights -- to his 1st Convention, and to the Yalta Conference, the 1st international flight of an incumbent President -- New York City did not name its main airport for FDR, instead naming it for John F. Kennedy. They did rename East River Drive and an East River island formerly named Manning's, Blackwell's and Welfare Island for him. In 1946, FDR's left profile replaced Mercury, the Roman messenger of the gods, on the dime, America's 10-cent coin.
He was the 1st President to establish a Presidential Library, on the land of his home, Springwood, in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York, overlooking the Hudson River, and on U.S. Route 9, the Albany Post Road, 85 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, and 70 miles south of the State Capitol in Albany. The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was an aircraft carrier, CV-42, in service from 1945 to 1977. The USS Roosevelt is a destroyer, DDG-80, in service since 2000.
There is a Franklin D. Roosevelt High School in the Mapleton section of Brooklyn, and an Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. There's a high school named for FDR not in Hyde Park, but in New Hyde Park, on Long Island. And there's a high school named for him in Dallas.
Jack Young played FDR 3 times, including in Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1942. Ralph Bellamy won a Tony Award playing him on Broadway in Sunrise at Campobello, and reprised his role in the 1960 film version, before playing him again in the 1983 ABC miniseries The Winds of War. Edward Herrmann played him 4 times, including in the 1st film version of the musical Annie, in 1982. David Ogden Stiers, who played the FDR-hating Boston Brahmin Charles Emerson Winchester III on M*A*S*H, played him twice: In J. Edgar Hoover in 1987 and Day One in 1989.
FDR is nearly always a character in films about his British counterpart in World War II, Winston Churchill: Arthur Hill in Churchill and the Generals, in 1979; John Lithgow, in World War II: When Lions Roared, in 1994; Len Cariou, in Into the Storm, in 2009; David Strathairn in Darkest Hour, in 2017; and Kyle MacLachlan, in Atlantic Crossing, in 2020.
Among the other actors who have played him have been Dan O'Herlihy in MacArthur, and Howard Da Silver in The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, both in 1977; John Anderson in Backstairs at the White House and Stephen Roberts in Ike, both in 1979; Jason Robards in F.D.R.: The Last Year, in 1980; Robert Vaughn in FDR: That Man in the White House, in 1982; Josepf Sommer, in The Kennedys of Massachusetts, in 1990; Bob Gunton, in Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long, and Lee Richardson, in Truman, both in 1995; Christopher Plummer, in Winchell, in 1998; Jon Voight, in Pearl Harbor, in 2001; Robert Hardy, in Bertie and Elizabeth, about the King and Queen of Britain, in 2002, and in Le Grand Charles, about de Gaulle of France, in 2006; Bill Murray, in Hyde Park on Hudson, in 2012; Joseph Culp in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., in 2020.
Someone decided, in the wake of the 2012 parody Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, to make a movie where the Axis leaders Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo were werewolves, and Barry Bostwick starred in FDR: American Badass! (Exclamation point theirs, not mine.)
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May 2, 1997 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 9-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams hit home runs. Derek Jeter went 0-for-3. Dave Cone was the winning pitcher.
* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at Shea Stadium.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-1 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 2-for-4.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Chuck Knoblauch singled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.
* The Houston Astros beat the Florida Marlins, 2-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-4 at Coors Field in Denver.
* The Montreal Expos beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-7 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Tom Prince drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-2 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Dan Wilson hit home runs.
* The Chicago White Sox and the team then known as the Anaheim Angels were rained out at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Angels won the opener, 3-2. The White Sox won the nightcap, 4-2.
* And the Detroit Tigers and the team then known as the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 13. The Tigers won the 1st game, 13-3. The Indians won the 2nd game, 9-1.
There were 2 games played in the NBA Playoffs. The Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 94-82 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. The Hawks won the series. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 95-91 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland. That was the only game the Lakers won in the series.
And there were 3 games played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs:
* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 2-0 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands. That was Game 1 of the series. The Rangers took the next 4. That really pissed me off.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 2-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Martin Lapointe scored the winner, 59 seconds into overtime.
* And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.
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