Henry Truman became the thirty third president of the United States on April 12, 1945. Upon the death of Franklin D he told reporters, "I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." During Truman's presidency Germany surrendered (May 8, 1945) and Japan surrendered (Aug. 14, 1945), ending World War II.
Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884. He joined the Baptist church in Kansas City, Missouri at age eighteen. He grew up in Independence, and for 12 years prospered as a Missouri farmer. In 1910, he began courting Elizabeth Wallace. While he was courting her he left and joined the army.
On August 1917, he was sworn into regular army service as a member of 129th Field Artillery regiment. In September, he was assigned to Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was then sent to Brest, France, on board USS George Washington.
This image was selected as a picture of the week o...
Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972), 1945 – 1953 the...
Postcard photo of Harry S. Truman taken in France ...Then on July 11, 1918, he was assigned command of Battery D, 129th Field Artillery regiment, 35th Division. The Battery was composed of 188 men, 167 horses. On May 6, 1919 he was discharged from the army. Shortly after he returned from the army he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace at the bride's church, Trinity Episcopal, in Independence, Missouri and moved into a house in Independence, Missouri where he opened a haberdashery shop.
Active in the Democratic Party, Truman was elected a judge of the Jackson County Court in 1922. On January 1927, he was sworn in as presiding judge of the Jackson County Court. He served two four-year terms. Then in May of 1934, he filed as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate. He won the election and on January 3, 1935, he was sworn in as U.S. Senator, along with twelve other new Democratic...