27th October: Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, 26th president of the USA was born on this date in 1858. He became the youngest president at 42, following the assassination of William McKinley.

1. His time in office contains an impressive list of firsts: The first president to ride in a plane (a four minute flight in a plane built by the Wright brothers), drive in a car and ride in a Submarine; the first president to travel outside the US (Panama in 1906); first president to refer to the presidential mansion as the White House; first to invite a black man to a White House dinner; first to appoint a Jewish person as a cabinet member; the first president to be known by his initials, TR. He was also the first American to win a Nobel Prize, for Peace in 1906.
2. It's generally known that he inspired the Teddy bear, when, on a hunting trip, he refused to shoot a defenceless bear, (because it was "unsportsmanlike" rather than out of compassion for the animal) - but he actually hated the nickname "Teddy" and insisted that his staff called him Theodore, or, if they must use a nickname, "The Colonel."
3. He was keen on conservation and to some extent put his money where his mouth was by banning Christmas Trees from the White House. His convictions didn't extend to the animal kingdom, though. In 1909 he went on safari and his party killed 11,400 animals including rare white Rhinos and Elephants. He justified his actions by saying that as long as there were natural history museums full of stuffed animals he could not be condemned for contributing to their collections!
4. His first wife and his mother both died on the same day, Valentine's day 1884. He was heartbroken and left politics for a while to become a cattle rancher. However, when a blizzard killed his herd, he went back to New York and resumed political activities, including an unsuccessful run for mayor.
5. He was a keen sportsman. After suffering from severe asthma as a child he embraced "The Strenuous Life". One of his favourite sports was boxing. At Harvard, he came second in a boxing tournament and he continued to box several times a week well into his presidency. He only stopped when he got punched so hard in the face that he went blind in one eye.
6. "The Strenuous Life" also included swimming in the Potomac River in the nude.
7. His face adorns Mount Rushmore alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. He is the only one of the five presidents to be portrayed wearing spectacles.
8. His most famous saying was "Speak softly and carry a big stick". Another piece of advice he gave was, "In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
9. While campaigning in 1912, he survived an assassination attempt when John Flammang Schrank shot him in the chest. His life was saved by the steel spectacle case and 50 page speech he was carrying in his pocket. After checking that he wasn't coughing blood (which would have meant the bullet was in his lung and he'd need urgent medical attention) he made the speech as planned. Undeterred by the blood seeping into his shirt and the bullet holes in the speech, he spoke for 90 minutes. He began by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
10. In 1919, a blood clot achieved what a shot to the chest couldn't, and he died in his sleep. Woodrow Wilson's vice president, Thomas R. Marshall, commented, "Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight."