RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) –
Leading up to America’s 250th birthday, we are revealing things you might not know about our presidents.
Tonight, we feature the first president to recognize the State of Israel in 1948—and his second inauguration was the first to be televised on national TV.
Harry S. Truman was born on May 8th, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri.
He couldn’t afford college, so after high school graduation, for more than a decade, he helped manage the family’s 660-acre farm while serving in the Missouri National Guard.
With the US entry into World War I in 1917, 33-year-old Harry Truman reenlisted and was sent to France, where he served as a captain of his artillery unit.
In 1919, he married a childhood classmate, Elizabeth “Bess” Wallace. The couple had one daughter.
He began his political career in 1922 as a county judge in Missouri, and he spent 10 years as a US senator from the ”Show Me State”.
In the presidential election of 1944, Truman was chosen to be Franklin Roosevelt’s running mate for his unprecedented fourth term.
Roosevelt defeated Thomas Dewey, but less than three months later, in April 1945, FDR died from a cerebral hemorrhage, making Harry S. Truman the 33rd President of the United States.
World War II was in its final months, the Nazi’s surrendered in May of 1845, and in August of that same year, to prevent massive US casualties, Truman would make the controversial decision to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese would surrender on August 14th, 1945.
In the election of 1948, Truman was expected to lose to Republican Thomas Dewey, but he pulled off the upset.
His victory was so improbable that the Chicago Tribune’s banner headline of “Dewey Defeats Truman” made for one of the most iconic photos in presidential history, with Truman holding up the front page of the paper.
In his second term, Truman had to navigate the US through the start of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the Korean War.
He supported the creation of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance of democratic nations that exists today.
Truman was eligible to run in 1952, but did not seek a third term. He retired to Independence, Missouri, for the next 20 years before his death in 1972.
Harry S. Truman was 88 years old.
Truman wanted to attend West Point, but his poor vision disqualified him from being admitted.
He was the last president who did not have a college degree.
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