Eleanor Roosevelt Is Born in Manhattan

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in Manhattan to Anna Rebecca Hall and Elliott Roosevelt, socialites whose families ran in the same circles as half of Gilded Age New York. Her father's brother was Theodore Roosevelt, so she grew up a presidential niece even before anyone in the family had a clue what she'd become. Her mother died when Eleanor was eight and her father, an alcoholic, died the year after, so she was raised in her grandmother's house instead. She married her fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1905 and went on to serve longer as first lady than anyone else in American history, from 1933 to 1945. After Franklin died, she stayed in public life and in 1946 became the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the seat from which she pushed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to adoption in 1948.