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This Day in History
Feb 9
World War II
Daylight saving time instituted, 1942
On this day, Congress pushes ahead standard time for the United States by one hour in each time zone, imposing daylight saving time--called at the time…
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1944 Election
By the beginning of 1944, in the middle of World War II, it was clear that President Franklin D. Roosevelt planned to run for a fourth term, and this shaped the coming campaign.
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1948 Election
President Harry S. Truman, who had succeeded President Roosevelt after his death in 1945, stood for reelection on the Democratic ticket with Alben Barkley of Kentucky as his running mate.
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1964 Election
The Democrats nominated Lyndon B. Johnson who had succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term by a margin of nearly 5 million: 27,244,160 popular votes to Republican Wendell L. Willkie's 22,305,198. The president carried the electoral college, 449 to 82. The new vice president was Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, chosen by the Democrats to replace the two-term vice president John Nance Garner who no longer agreed with Roosevelt about anything. Charles A. McNary was the Republican candidate for vice president.
The major issue facing the American people in 1940 was World War II. This fact had determined the Republican choice of Willkie, who was a liberal internationalist running as the candidate of a conservative isolationist party. Although Willkie did not disagree with Roosevelt on foreign policy, the country chose to stay with an experienced leader.
The Reader's Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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