Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri and grew up on his family’s farm near Independence. 

He served in World War I as an artillery officer in France. After the war, he joined the Democratic Party. Truman was first elected to public office as a county official in 1922, and then as a United States Senator for Missouri in 1934. 

Truman’s middle name is ‘S’. His parents couldn’t agree on his middle name, so they named him ‘S’ as they both had relatives whose names began with an ‘S’. 

After serving as a Senator for a decade, he became Vice President in 1945 and succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945 after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was president during the final months of World War II, making the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Truman was elected to server another term as president in 1948. He could have served another full term but was not selected as the Democratic Party candidate in the 1952 presidential elections, which were won by the Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.