Video: 'President Roosevelt signs the Servicemen's Readjustment Act as a center serves wa...HD Stock Footage'

(Thursday, June 22, 1944, 11:30 a.m. EWT; during World War II) — U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt today signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more popularly known as the “G.I. Bill of Rights,” providing a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans.

Video: 'GI Bill Of Rights - Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944'

By the time the original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, 7.8 million veterans had used the G.I. Bill education benefits, some 2.2 million to attend colleges or universities and an additional 5.6 million for some kind of training program.

Video: 'Almanac: The GI Bill'

Historians and economists judge the G.I. Bill a major political and economic success—especially in contrast to the treatments of World War I veterans—and a major contribution to U.S. stock of human capital that encouraged long-term economic growth.

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It has been criticized for various reasons including increasing racial wealth disparities during the era of Jim Crow.