Theodore Roosevelt
1901 - 1909
Teddy Roosevelt was born on October 17, 1858 in New York, New York.
He was a sickly child. He suffered from asthma and stomach problems. His father told Teddy that he would need to build his body like he built his mind. He responded to his father "I'll make my body."
His mother and first wife died on the same day and in the same house. He was devastated by his wife's death. He tried to put it out of his memory and never mentioned her in his autobiography.
After the death of his first wife he went to the Dakota territory. At one point he considered becoming a rancher for the rest of his life.
When he returned to New York, he met his old girl friend Edith Crow. Three weeks later they were secretly engaged.
There was a foot of snow on the ground the day he was inaugurated Governor of New York.
The youngest man to become president. He was 42. He was 5' 8" tall.
He and John Quincy Adams were the two presidents who didn't lay their hand on the Bible to take the oath of office.
His first book to be published was The Naval War of 1812. During his life time he wrote forty books.
Teddy was elected as the youngest member of the New York Assembly.
Teddy Roosevelt became president in 1900 when president McKinley was assassinated.
Theodore Roosevelt didn't have a Vice President from (1901-1905). During his second term Charles Fairbanks (1905-1909) was Vice President.
Roosevelt had the greatest popular majority and the greatest electoral majority of anyone who ran for President.
President Roosevelt was the first president to refer to his residence as the "White House." Prior to his term it was known as the Executive Mansion or just the President's House.
In 1901, Teddy Roosevelt invited the press to come out of freezing rain storm and into the lobby of the West Wing. The press worked there until President Nixon moved them to the Executive Office Building.
When the Great White Fleet, which TR sent around the world in 1907, returned to America in 1909, it was immediately painted gray.
Theodore Roosevelt served in the Spanish-American War.
Theodore Roosevelt: third cousin twice removed of Martin Van Buren
Booker T. Washington was the first black man invited to dine at the White House, a guest of TR. ( Lincoln had invited African-Americans to the White House but not to dine.)
His sons, Archie and Quentin, sometimes lined up for morning roll-call with the White House police.
Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) founded the Progressive or Bull Moose Party.
He was the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize (1906) for negotiating a peace treaty between Russia and Japan.
Theodore Roosevelt.
(Click for larger image.)
President Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to study the martial arts. He took up jiujisu after being hurt in a boxing match.
He set aside vast wilderness lands for conservation. These later became part of the country's national parks and nature reserves.
In 1903, Roosevelt set out on the longest trip ever taken by a president. In 19 weeks, he traveled over 14,000 miles crossing 24 states and territories.
Roosevelt tried to have "In God We Trust" removed from coins. He thought it sacrilegious and unconstitutional.
Oklahoma was admitted as a state while Roosevelt was president.
Teddy was the first president to own an automobile--it was a purple-lined Columbia Electric Victoria. He rode through Hartford, Connecticut on August 22, 1902. 20 carriages followed the president's car. He was also the first president to own a car.
President Roosevelt was also the first president to submerge in a submarine.
TR was the first president to ride in an airplane, a Wright biplane October 11, 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri. (He rode in the plane after his term of office.)
In 1912, John Schrank attempted to assassinate President Roosevelt while he was campaigning for the presidency. The bullet passed through the folded paper copy of the speech he was going to give that day. It also went through his iron eye glass case. The bullet did enter his chest and went in three inches. It lodged in his chest cage. Schrank was committed to a state hospital and stayed there until he died in 1943.
The teddy bear was named after President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1902, while hunting in Mississippi, Teddy's dogs cornered a small bear cub. Roosevelt refused to shoot it. This act of mercy was published in the newspaper in cartoon form. Morris Michtom and his partner ask Theodore Roosevelt to use his name for a toy bear. Teddy agreed to let his name be used. Now the soft cuddly bears are known as Teddy Bears. (Morris Michtom went on to found the Ideal Toy Company.)
President Roosevelt's daughter, Alice, had a pet garter snake named Emily Spinach. The family had numerous pets while they lived in the White House. They once tried to take a pony to the second floor by using the White House elevator. He and his children had numerous pets. They had a guinea pig named Father O'Grady . He also had a Bull Dog named Pete and a Chesapeake Retriever named Sailor Boy.
He was the first American and first president to win a Nobel Peace Prize. He won the award for his efforts in ending the Russo-Japanese War.
All four Theodore Roosevelt's sons enlisted in the army during WWI.
Theodore Roosevelt died on January 6, 1919, in Oyster Bay, New York. He was 60 years and 71 days old.
Quotes from Theodore Roosevelt:
Get action. Do things; be sane, don't fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.
1900 Many-Sided Roosevelt, p. 83
The only safe rule is to promise little, and faithfully to keep every promise; to "speak softly and carry a big stick." -1913 Autobiography p. 537
"Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time."
Kansas City Star, Nov. 1, 1917
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy."
"I do not like the hardness of the heart, but neither do I like softness of the head."
"When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all."
"A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad."
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by Doris Kearns Goodwin. (An outstanding book on Roosevelt and Taft.)