The Eisenhower Diaries

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, serving two terms, from 1953-1961. He was also a former U.S. general in the Army. The former president was born on October 14, 1890 in Denison, Texas and died on March 28, 1969. Eisenhower was a graduate from the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe; he had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942-1943 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944-1945 from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.

Eisenhower married Mamie Geneva Doud on July 1, 1916, and they later had two sons.

Eisenhower's support of the nation's fledgling space program was modest until the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, gaining the Cold War enemy enormous prestige around the world. He then launched a national campaign that funded not just space exploration but a major strengthening of science and higher education. He rushed construction of more advanced satellites, created NASA as a civilian space agency, signed a landmark science education law, and fostered improved relations with American scientists. He also was in office when both Alaska and Hawaii became part of the United States of America in 1959.

030