Franklin Roosevelt on April 11, 1945.
Franklin Roosevelt died on this day in 1945.
His death was a surprise to nobody close to him but came as a shock to the nation. He'd been fading steadily for months. His final moments came while sitting for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia. His last words were "I have a terrific headache", reflecting that he died of a massive intracerebral hemorrhage.
He was 63 years of age.
Harry S. Truman was inaugurated President. Immediately thereafter, Secretary of War Harry Stimson and James F. Byrnes informed him of the nature of the Manhattan Project. He'd been kept in the dark about it previously, in spite of trying to learn of its nature while in Congress. At noon he met reporters and said “last night the whole weight of the moon and stars fell on me. If you fellows ever pray, please pray for me.”
Much about Truman's approach to things would be different than Roosevelt's, and FRD's death and Truman's inauguration cannot be regarded as a seamless transition. Roosevelt was politely hostile to European colonialism and did not desire to see European powers return to their former colonial domains where they had been pushed out of them. Truman was rapidly approached by France and the UK and became sympathetic to their positions. Roosevelt was naive in some ways to the dangers of Communism and while Truman was not really enlightened to them at first, he'd become so after the war, while also being saddled with an administration that had seen significant left wing penetration. Truman was, also, blunt.
Roosevelt is arguably the last great President of the United States. The country has certainly had some good ones since then, but none who were great.
Hitler was ecstatic about Roosevelt's death, maintaining it was a sign that German fortunes in the war were turning.
The US 3rd Army took Erfurt. The French took Baden Baden.
The USS Lindsey, Mannert L. Abele and Zellars were severely damaged off of Okinawa by kamikazes.
The Srmian Front was broken by the Red Army.
The Battle of Authion ended in Allied victory.
The Battle of Buchhof and Stein am Kocher ended after one week.
The Royal Navy sank the U-486 and U-1024.
The Berlin Philharmonic gave one of its last Third Reich performances at the Philharmonic Hall in Berlin, with various members of the military and political elite in attendance. Robert Heger conducted Brünnhilde's last aria (the Immolation Scene) and the finale from Richard Wagner's Götterdammerung, Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and Anton Bruckner's Romantic Symphony. Members of the Hitler Youth offered cyanide capsules to the audience as they left the building, many of those in attendance being military and political elites.
