FDR CREATES POLIO FOUNDATION
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, himself a victim of polio, created today the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.
The foundation is to be a non-partisan association of health scientists & volunteers who will help fund research for polio vaccine & assist victims during physical rehabilitation.*
Polio Hall of Fame*
by Henry Lytton Cobbold
Warm Springs, Georgia
*Persons instrumental in polio research
*FDR raised money for the fund by sponsoring the annual President's Birthday Ball.
"The foundation (was) set up for cases like mine, people who couldn't possibly meet the overall expenses involved in an illness like this."
Larry Alexander (1954)
During a radio show, singer Eddie Cantor called on listeners to send dimes to FDR, thus coining the term "March of Dimes". More the 2.6 million dimes were sent to the White House along with thousands of dollars.
National Foundation for
Infantile Paralysis Poster
National Museum of History
"I won't ever forget the feeling in my legs when I lost the use of them. It was just such a weird feeling. It was just like it went through me, just a surge went through my body. It was very frightening for a little 14 year old girl to think....my life's gone."
Addie Flowers Vance
Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 1996
www.ncmuseumofhistory.org
January 3, 1962
JFK ORDERS INCREASE IN ARMY DIVISIONS
West Palm Beach, Florida (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy today ordered an increase in the size of the United States Army from 14 to 16 divisions.
The President, vacationing with his family here in Florida, will visit his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. who was a victim of a stroke last month & is undergoing treatment at St. Mary's Hospital.
The President & First Lady will also take a cruise aboard the "Honey Fitz" with Vice-President Johnson, Secretary of Defense Bob McNamara & his deputy Roswell Gilpatric.*
*Roswell Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense, was to play a key role in the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. As a member of EXCOMM, he advised JFK to choose a quarantine instead of an attack on the Soviet missile bases.
In a released audio recording of an EXCOMM meeting, Mr. Gilpatric says:
"Essentially, Mr. President, this is a choice between limited action & unlimited action & most of us think it is better to start with limited action."
Roswell Gilpatric
JFK Deputy Secretary of Defense**
**Gilpatric was a graduate of Yale, became a corporate attorney in New York City & in 1964 served as chairman of the Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation.
January 3, 1959
JFK SWORN IN FOR 2nd SENATE TERM
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was sworn in today at the Capitol for his second term in the United States Senate.
JFK, 41, joins the 86th Congress as a member of the Foreign Relations, Labor & Public Welfare & Joint Economic committees.
January 3, 1953
JFK SWORN IN AS MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) John F. Kennedy was sworn in today as Senator representing the commonwealth of Massachusetts today.
The 3 term 11th district congressman narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. in the fall election.
Senator Kennedy will serve on the Government Operations & Labor & Public Welfare committees.
The other senator representing Massachusetts is Republican Leverett Saltonstall.
