It's incredible that within such short time of JFK's assassination, he came up with a vision or a whole series of legislative programs that would eventually become fact.

1941: FDR's Four Freedoms

One of the best remembered moments is the declaration of the "Four Freedoms" in Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union -- the freedom from want, the freedom from fear, the freedom of speech and the freedom of worship. It became memorialized in Norman Rockwell's famous paintings and offered a standard by which other countries would be judged. It still provides hope for those countries where those freedoms are not assured.

Another important note from that State of the Union is that FDR called for the Lend-Lease act for Britain, which was then at war with Germany. At a time when our country was still isolationist, eventually Lend-Lease passed, proving that we had educated the country to the need to do something even before Pearl Harbor brought us into the war.

Eleanor Roosevelt, in a very rare lapse of judgment, was upset that during the discussion of the Four Freedoms and Lend-Lease, the Republicans did not clap and sat on their hands.

She said she felt that they were just little kids, saying, "I don't want to play in your yard. I don't love you anymore." She then got roundly criticized -- and rightly so -- by Republicans, who said, "What does she thinks she is, the queen? And he is the king? And we are not allowed to criticize them?"