Happy Birthday Teddy
On this day of October 27th in 1858, 152 years ago today, Theodore Roosevelt, the 25th President of the United States, was born in a four story brownstone home at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan. The home still exists today as a Museum.
Teddy was a sickly kid who was ashtmatic and hyperactive. To combat his poor health, he learned to box. He was strongly influnced by his father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., a no nonsense driven man. February 14, 1884 was the worst day of Teddy's life. On that day his first wife Alice and his mother Martha both died on the same day in the same house (Alice of kidney failure and Martha of typhoid.) In his diary, Teddy put a large X on the page and wrote "the light has gone out of my life."
He became a state assemblyman, then the New York City Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Governor of New York. In the Spanish-American War he led a group of volunteers called the Roughriders and became famous for leading the charge up Kettle Hill in the Battle of San Juan Hill.
He was picked by President William McKinley to be Vice-President and became president on September 14, 1901 upon the death of President McKinley. He became the youngest person to become president at the age of 42.
Re-elected in 1904, he had a very active presidency, especially as a trust buster and in protecting the environment. He was also ahead of his time when it came to civil rights, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering a peace between Russia and Japan.
Declining a third term in office, Teddy picked William Howard Taft as his successor and Taft was elected President in 1908 with Teddy's support. But he saw Taft as betraying many of his own causes and he ran against Taft in 1912, unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination, and then as a third party candidate for the Bull Moose Party. In that campaign he survived an assassination attempt and finished second in the election ahead of Taft but behind Woodrow Wilson. He had the best showing of any third party candidate to date.
In 1917 at the age of 59 he tried to enlist to fight in the first world war, but President Wilson would not permit him to do so. He died in his sleep from a heart attack on January 6, 1919. Historians usually rank him among the five top presidents. Perhaps his greatest legacy was having his face carved in rock on Mount Rushmore, along with Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. Even in death, Teddy Roosevelt remains larger than life.
Teddy was a sickly kid who was ashtmatic and hyperactive. To combat his poor health, he learned to box. He was strongly influnced by his father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., a no nonsense driven man. February 14, 1884 was the worst day of Teddy's life. On that day his first wife Alice and his mother Martha both died on the same day in the same house (Alice of kidney failure and Martha of typhoid.) In his diary, Teddy put a large X on the page and wrote "the light has gone out of my life."
He became a state assemblyman, then the New York City Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Governor of New York. In the Spanish-American War he led a group of volunteers called the Roughriders and became famous for leading the charge up Kettle Hill in the Battle of San Juan Hill.
He was picked by President William McKinley to be Vice-President and became president on September 14, 1901 upon the death of President McKinley. He became the youngest person to become president at the age of 42.
Re-elected in 1904, he had a very active presidency, especially as a trust buster and in protecting the environment. He was also ahead of his time when it came to civil rights, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering a peace between Russia and Japan.
Declining a third term in office, Teddy picked William Howard Taft as his successor and Taft was elected President in 1908 with Teddy's support. But he saw Taft as betraying many of his own causes and he ran against Taft in 1912, unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination, and then as a third party candidate for the Bull Moose Party. In that campaign he survived an assassination attempt and finished second in the election ahead of Taft but behind Woodrow Wilson. He had the best showing of any third party candidate to date.
In 1917 at the age of 59 he tried to enlist to fight in the first world war, but President Wilson would not permit him to do so. He died in his sleep from a heart attack on January 6, 1919. Historians usually rank him among the five top presidents. Perhaps his greatest legacy was having his face carved in rock on Mount Rushmore, along with Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. Even in death, Teddy Roosevelt remains larger than life.