Harry S Truman's Life

Harry Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri. He had no middle name, so he just added the S to his name with no period. He was the first President to play the piano. He woke up at 5:00AM and practiced for at least two hours a day before school time. He was the only twentieth-century to not receive a college degree, meaning he did not attend college. Harry Truman married Elizabeth Virginia "Bess" Wallace in 1919 and they had one child named Margaret. He was a senator from Missouri for ten years before he was inaugurated Vice President of the States on January 20, 1945. He was Vice President until April 12, 1945 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in office that day. Harry Truman was in the 1948 presidential race and won. He declined to serve another term. While he was in office in 1945, on September 2, he used the atomic bomb when the United States attacked Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which caused Japan to surrender and soon ended World War II. He returned to Independence, Missouri where he devoted his time to the Truman Library. He retired for 19 years before he died in Independence on December 26, 1972 at age eighty-eight. Note: Truman was President from 1945 through 1953 and the Vice President was Alben William Barkley.