Born in Staunton, Virginia on this day, the 28th U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was best known for his leadership during World War I and drive to establish the League of Nations.
"Those with whom we work look to us for heat as well as light," he said, the recipient of the 1920 Nobel Prize for Peace. "The person who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it."
The son of a minister, Wilson was a college professor, writer, President of Princeton University, and governor of New Jersey before serving his two Presidential terms. His peace program, called the Fourteen Points, outlined freedom, self-determination, and foreign policy.
"I use not only all the brains I have,"he explained. "But all I can borrow."
Known for his great oratory skills and positive outlook, he once observed, "You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."
"Sometimes people call me an idealist," Wilson admitted. "Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world."