January 30

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York on this day in 1882, but perhaps no other president besides Jimmy Carter had such strong Georgia ties.



Stricken with polio in 1921, Roosevelt made his first visit to Warm Springs three years later. It became his second home. He founded what is now the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation in 1927 and visited Georgia 41 times before his death at the Little White House in 1945.



During the Great Depression, many of his new deal programs transformed Georgia—it poured $250 million in federal money into electrification and road paving for rural areas, work programs for the unemployed, and improvements in education, health care, and housing.



FDR became a fixture in Warm Springs, and he loved to travel the countryside visiting with Georgia farmers. They accepted him as one of their own who understood the hardships they faced.



This adopted son of Georgia was born in New York on January 30, 1882, Today in Georgia History.