{\b Harry Truman}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 8 May 1884

{\b Date of Death}.: 26 December 1972

Truman, thirty-third president of the United States and one of the signatories 
of the German World War Two surrender documents, was born the son of a mule 
trader and farmer. He went to school in Independence, Montana, and, prior to 
entering the political arena, worked at a number of trades including farm 
management, bank clerk, postmaster, roads overseer and partner in two failed 
business ventures: a lead mine and a oil-prospecting business.

After serving in the First World War, Truman married Elizabeth Wallace and, 
after another unsuccessful business venture, went into politics. He became a 
county judge in 1922, but lost the seat just two years later and spent a 
further two years attending night school at the Kansas City Law School before 
returning to office, this time for eight years. This stint as county judge 
stood him in good stead for his next career moves and, by 1935, he had entered 
the U.S. Senate. After Roosevelt replaced Henry A. Wallace with Truman as 
vice-president, Truman spent just eighty-two days in the post prior to 
Roosevelt's death, at which point he became president at the age of sixty.

Having come to office towards the very end of the war, Truman had vital tasks 
to perform: he helped to manage the peace settlement with Germany in May of 
1945 and also presided over the end of the war in the Pacific, with the 
controversial dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Re-elected to office against all expectations in 1948, Truman went on to 
become a major player in the Cold War. One year previous to re-election he had 
established the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.). He also initiated the 
Berlin Airlift of 1948 and gave the go-ahead, in 1950, for the American 
construction of hydrogen bombs and, again in 1950, for the sending of U.S. 
troops to Korea. He retired in January 1953 and died in Kansas City almost 
twenty years later, in 1972.