George Washington established the tradition that a president would only seek two terms in office. But Franklin Delano Roosevelt broke that precedent. During the crises of the Great Depression and World War II, FDR was elected to his third term in 1940 and his fourth term in 1944. He died in April 1945, soon after his fourth inauguration. A new Republican Congress quickly sought to set term limits for future presidents in 1947, and the Twenty-second Amendment was ratified in 1951.