April 12, 1945.
A president has died.
A Missourian will succeed him. Harry Truman. Unless you count David Rice Atchison and Ulysses Grant, he is the only man from Missouri to lead this nation as its president. Fate has thrust him into that office. Three years later he will win it outright despite great odds, the rumors, the polls, a Chicago newspaper that proclaims him the loser, and a radio commentator named H. V. Kaltenborn, who found the returns hard to believe throughout the long election night.