60 Fun Facts About Teddy Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was which number president of the United States?

Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president, serving from September 1901 to March 1909: first completing his assassinated predecessor's term, then winning the 1904 election in his own right.

How old was Roosevelt when he became president, making him the youngest person ever to hold the office?

Roosevelt was 42 when sworn in on 14 September 1901, having been born on 27 October 1858; John F. Kennedy, by comparison, was 43 at his 1961 inauguration.

Roosevelt became president after the assassination of which predecessor?

William McKinley was shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on 6 September 1901 and died eight days later; Roosevelt, vice president for six months, took the oath at the Ansley Wilcox House.

Which chronic illness plagued Roosevelt as a child and terrified his parents?

Asthma attacks left the young Roosevelt gasping for breath at night; on the family's 1869 European tour he kept pace with adults hiking in the Alps, convincing him that hard exercise helped.

Roosevelt was born in 1858 in which US state?

He was born on 27 October 1858 at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan, New York; a reconstruction of the brownstone is preserved as his birthplace national historic site.

Which university did Roosevelt enter in 1876, graduating Phi Beta Kappa four years later?

At Harvard he boxed, rowed and joined the Porcellian Club, co-published a pamphlet on the summer birds of the Adirondacks in 1877, and graduated magna cum laude in 1880.

Roosevelt's 1882 book, which made his name as a historian, was about which conflict?

Published in 1882, The Naval War of 1812 studied The War of 1812 at sea in ship-by-ship detail; begun in his final undergraduate year, it long remained a standard naval reference.

Of what did Roosevelt's first wife Alice die on 14 February 1884?

Kidney failure from undiagnosed Bright's disease killed Alice two days after she gave birth to their daughter; his mother Mittie died of typhoid in the same house that day.

After his wife and mother died in 1884, Roosevelt ranched cattle in which territory?

Dakota Territory, where he bought into the Maltese Cross Ranch in 1883 and built Elkhorn Ranch 35 miles north of Medora; as a deputy sheriff he once tracked down three boat thieves.

In 1886 Roosevelt married his childhood friend Edith Kermit Carow in which city?

They wed in London at St George's, Hanover Square, on 2 December 1886, with his friend Cecil Spring Rice as best man; the couple went on to have five children together.

In 1895 Roosevelt took a job in New York City heading which body?

The Board of Police Commissioners, a four-man body, was where Mayor William Strong placed him in May 1895; as its president he walked night beats with journalist Jacob Riis to catch sleeping patrolmen.

Which post did Roosevelt resign in 1898 to go and fight in the Spanish-American War?

As Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1897 he had readied the fleet for war with Spain, cabling Commodore Dewey to prepare for action; in May 1898 he resigned to join the fighting in Cuba.

The Rough Riders were the nickname of which unit?

The 1st US Volunteer Cavalry was one of three volunteer cavalry regiments raised in 1898 and the only one to reach Cuba; most of its horses were left behind in Tampa, so the men fought on foot.

Who was the first commander of the Rough Riders, with Roosevelt as his second in command?

Leonard Wood, an army surgeon decorated in the Apache campaigns, was the regiment's colonel; Roosevelt served as his lieutenant colonel and took over when Wood was promoted to brigade command before the fighting.

During the famous charge in Cuba on 1 July 1898, Roosevelt was the only soldier on horseback up which slope?

Kettle Hill, beside San Juan Hill, is where he rode up on his horse Little Texas until a wire fence forced him to finish on foot; he called it 'the great day of my life'.

Roosevelt is the only president to have received which military decoration, awarded posthumously in 2001?

The Medal of Honor was recommended by his commanders in 1898 but denied, partly because of his own lobbying for it; Bill Clinton presented it to his family on 16 January 2001.

Returning from Cuba a war hero, Roosevelt was elected to which office in 1898?

Elected Governor of New York in November 1898 by a narrow margin, he pushed reforms that so irritated boss Thomas Platt that Platt engineered his nomination for vice president in 1900 to be rid of him.

Which words complete Roosevelt's 1901 aphorism "Speak softly and..."?

Roosevelt's line continues "...carry a big stick; you will go far", a West African proverb he first used publicly at the Minnesota State Fair on 2 September 1901; it became shorthand for his foreign policy.

What did Roosevelt call his domestic programme of fairness, trust-busting and pure food and drugs?

The Square Deal was his name for a programme balancing the interests of business, labour and consumers; it produced the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and earned him the nickname 'the Trust Buster'.

Roosevelt's first big antitrust case broke up Northern Securities, a monopoly in which industry?

Railroads: Northern Securities was the Morgan-Hill holding company for the Great Northern and Northern Pacific lines, and the Supreme Court ordered it dissolved in 1904; Roosevelt brought 44 antitrust suits in all.

Which 1906 Upton Sinclair novel galvanised support for the Meat Inspection Act?

The Jungle, Sinclair's exposé of Chicago's packing houses, so disgusted readers that Congress passed both the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in June 1906.

Roosevelt won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of which war?

He was the first non-European to win any Nobel Prize; the treaty was signed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Why did Roosevelt choose Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to host the 1905 peace talks?

Its cooler summer climate was the draw: the talks opened in August 1905 and Roosevelt wanted to spare the Russian and Japanese delegates Washington's sweltering heat; the naval shipyard also offered a secure venue.

The Panama Canal route Roosevelt backed ran through territory that in 1903 belonged to which country?

Colombia, whose senate rejected the Hay-Herrán Treaty in August 1903; Panama then declared independence on 3 November with US warships offshore, and the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty granted the canal zone within weeks.

Where did Roosevelt go in November 1906 on the first official presidential trip abroad?

Panama and Puerto Rico: sailing on the battleship USS Louisiana, he spent three days inspecting the canal works in the rainy season, famously posing at the controls of a steam shovel, then called at Puerto Rico.

How many battleships made up the Great White Fleet Roosevelt sent around the world in 1907-09?

16 battleships, painted peacetime white, left Hampton Roads on 16 December 1907 and returned on 22 February 1909 after a 43,000-mile circumnavigation sailed in two squadrons.

Roughly how much land did Roosevelt place under federal protection as president?

230 million acres of public land went under federal protection: five national parks, 18 national monuments, 150 national forests, four game preserves and 51 federal bird reservations.

Which Wyoming landmark did Roosevelt make the first US national monument in September 1906?

Devils Tower, a volcanic butte rising 867 feet from its base, was proclaimed on 24 September 1906 under the Antiquities Act signed that June, which lets presidents create monuments without Congress.

In 1903 Roosevelt created the first national wildlife refuge, Pelican Island, in which state?

Florida, in the Indian River Lagoon: Pelican Island, a brown pelican rookery, became the first federal bird reservation by executive order on 14 March 1903 after ornithologists Frank Chapman and William Dutcher lobbied him.

The teddy bear was named after Roosevelt following a hunting trip in 1902 in which state?

Mississippi, near Onward in November 1902: he refused to shoot a bear his guides had captured and tied up, and Clifford Berryman's Washington Post cartoon 'Drawing the Line in Mississippi' inspired the toy.

Which New York toymaker named the teddy bear after the president?

Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn candy-shop owner, displayed a stuffed 'Teddy's bear' sewn by his wife Rose in late 1902 and later founded the Ideal Toy Company; Richard Steiff made a similar bear in Germany at the same time.

Which Black leader did Roosevelt invite to a White House dinner in 1901, provoking Southern outrage?

Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute, dined at the White House on 16 October 1901; the furious Southern reaction led Roosevelt to avoid repeating the invitation.

Roosevelt hand-picked which Secretary of War to succeed him as president in 1908?

William Howard Taft, his Secretary of War since 1904, won the 1908 election with Roosevelt's backing; within four years they had fallen out so badly that Roosevelt ran against him.

After leaving office in 1909, Roosevelt spent a year collecting specimens on which continent?

Africa: the Smithsonian-Roosevelt expedition landed at Mombasa in April 1909 and ended at Khartoum in March 1910, shipping home more than 11,000 specimens, with Andrew Carnegie among the funders.

In which European city did Roosevelt deliver his 1910 "Man in the Arena" speech?

Paris: the speech, formally titled 'Citizenship in a Republic', was delivered at the Sorbonne on 23 April 1910 during his European tour after leaving office.

In October 1910 Roosevelt became the first US president to do what?

Fly in an aeroplane: on 11 October 1910 at Kinloch Field near St. Louis he went up for about four minutes with pilot Arch Hoxsey in a Wright biplane, a year after leaving office.

What was the popular name of the Progressive movement Roosevelt led into the 1912 election?

The Bull Moose Party was the nickname of the Progressive Party he founded after losing the Republican nomination in June 1912; the split in the Republican vote handed the election to Woodrow Wilson.

In which city was Roosevelt shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank while campaigning on 14 October 1912?

Milwaukee: Schrank fired outside the Gilpatrick Hotel as Roosevelt left for the Auditorium, and Roosevelt shouted to the crowd not to hurt him; Schrank claimed a murdered president's ghost had ordered the killing.

What slowed the 1912 assassin's bullet before it lodged in Roosevelt's chest?

A folded 50-page speech and his eyeglass case, both in his breast pocket, absorbed much of the impact; the bullet lodged against a rib and he insisted on speaking before going to hospital.

How long did Roosevelt speak after being shot in 1912?

About 90 minutes, reading from the bloodstained manuscript; doctors then decided the bullet was safer left in place, and he carried it in his chest muscle for the rest of his life.

Who was Roosevelt's running mate on the 1912 Progressive Party ticket?

Hiram Johnson, the reform governor of California, ran with Roosevelt on the 1912 Progressive ticket; they carried six states and 88 electoral votes, finishing ahead of the Republican ticket.

In 1913-14 Roosevelt nearly died exploring a Brazilian waterway then known by what name?

The River of Doubt was renamed the Rio Roosevelt after the 1914 descent with Cândido Rondon and his son Kermit; a leg infection and fever nearly killed him on the way.

Roosevelt's youngest son Quentin was killed in 1918 serving as what?

A fighter pilot with the 95th Aero Squadron, he was shot down and killed near Chamery on 14 July 1918, Bastille Day, four days after downing a German aircraft himself.

What was the name of Roosevelt's home near Oyster Bay, Long Island, where he died in 1919?

Sagamore Hill, the house he built in 1885 on Cove Neck above Oyster Bay, was where he died in his sleep of a pulmonary embolism on 6 January 1919, aged 60.

Roosevelt's last words were addressed to his servant James Amos and asked him to do what?

Put out the light: his final words, spoken to valet James Amos, were 'James, will you please put out the light?' Vice-President Thomas Marshall said death had to take him sleeping or there would have been a fight.

Roosevelt is one of four presidents carved into which mountain?

Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills, where Gutzon Borglum began carving in 1927; Roosevelt's head, the last of the four completed, was dedicated in 1939 beside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.

Which injury did Roosevelt suffer while boxing as president, a fact hidden for years?

Blindness in his left eye followed a 1904 White House bout in which a blow damaged the retina and his sight faded over the following years; he kept it secret and switched to jiu-jitsu lessons with Yoshitsugu Yamashita.

Roosevelt said of his eldest daughter that he could either run the country or do what?

Attend to Alice: 'I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both,' he said; 'Princess Alice' smoked on the White House roof and kept a garter snake named Emily Spinach.

Which actor played a wax Roosevelt that comes to life in Night at the Museum?

Robin Williams played the waxwork Roosevelt, mounted on his horse, in Night at the Museum (2006) and its two sequels, the last released in 2014 after his death.

How many volumes made up Roosevelt's frontier history The Winning of the West?

4 volumes of The Winning of the West appeared between 1889 and 1896, tracing the frontier from Daniel Boone's Kentucky to the Louisiana Purchase era; it was his most ambitious historical work.

What is the 1904 addition to the Monroe Doctrine claiming a US right to intervene in Latin America called?

The Roosevelt Corollary, set out in his December 1904 message to Congress after the Venezuelan debt crisis of 1902-03, asserted that the United States could act as an 'international police power' in the Western Hemisphere.

In his 1910 Nobel lecture, Roosevelt proposed that the great powers form what?

A League of Peace: in the lecture, delivered at Christiania on 5 May 1910, he said it would be a 'masterstroke' if the great powers bent on peace formed one, backed by force if necessary.

Where did Roosevelt study law after giving up plans to study natural science?

Columbia Law School, which he entered in the autumn of 1880 after marrying Alice Lee; he left without a degree when elected to the state assembly in November 1881.

Which labor candidate did Roosevelt face when he ran for New York mayor in 1886?

Henry George, the single-tax reformer running on the United Labor ticket, finished second; Democrat Abram Hewitt won with 41 per cent as Republicans fearing George's radicalism deserted Roosevelt, who came third.

Which organisation did Roosevelt found to conserve large game animals and their habitats?

The Boone and Crockett Club, founded in December 1887 with George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, campaigned for the protection of Yellowstone and for the 1891 Forest Reserve Act.

To which federal body did President Harrison appoint Roosevelt in 1889?

Civil Service Commission: Harrison made the appointment in May 1889 at Henry Cabot Lodge's urging, and Roosevelt spent six years fighting the spoils system, clashing publicly with Postmaster General John Wanamaker.

Whose death in November 1899 opened the vice-presidential spot Roosevelt filled in 1900?

Garret Hobart, the sitting vice president, died of heart disease on 21 November 1899; boss Thomas Platt then steered Roosevelt onto the 1900 ticket to get him out of Albany.

Who was the Democratic nominee Roosevelt defeated in the 1904 presidential election?

With Platt's power waning, Roosevelt faced little opposition for the nomination and won the general election easily.

Which 1906 Roosevelt speech term came to describe journalists making wild charges?

Muckraker came from his 14 April 1906 speech 'The Man with the Muck-Rake', borrowing Bunyan's character who stared at filth and never looked up; the press adopted it as a badge of honour.

Which of Roosevelt's sons telegraphed his siblings 'The old lion is dead' in 1919?

Archibald, invalided home after being wounded in France, cabled his brothers Ted and Kermit, who were both in Europe with the army, after their father died at home on 6 January 1919.