On this historic day, October 27, 1858, Teddy Roosevelt, American titan, was born in New York

Theodore Roosevelt, titan of political progressivism, war hero, champion of American exceptionalism, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and 26th President of the United States, was born in New York City on this historic day, October 27, 1858.

He left a massive imprint on both our national heritage and the physical landscape and set in motion the ascendancy of the American century.

Among other amazing accomplishments, he remains the youngest man to become President of the United States, reaching the Oval Office at age 42.

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« Roosevelt’s youth was very different from that of the log cabin presidents, » reports WhiteHouse.gov, the official website for the presidential mansion, in its report on the 26th president. He was quoting « The Presidents of the United States of America » ​​by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey.

« He was born in New York in 1858 into a wealthy family, but he too struggled with ill health – and in his triumph became an advocate for the exhausting life. »

His first wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt, and his mother died on the same day in 1884, setting Teddy Roosevelt on a path that would reshape both his personal destiny and that of the nation.

“Roosevelt spent much of the next two years on his ranch in the Badlands of Dakota Territory,” writes WhiteHouse.gov.

« There he mastered his grief by living in the saddle, driving cattle, hunting big game – he even captured an outlaw. » While visiting London, he married Edith Carow in December 1886.

He galloped into military tradition on July 1, 1898, leading the Rough Riders into the Battle of San Juan Hill, during the swift victory of the United States in the Spanish-American War.

Theodore Roosevelt standing on a podium pointing to the crowd during a campaign rally speech. California. 1900.
(Getty Pictures)

« Of Theodore Roosevelt’s many accomplishments, few capture the imagination as easily as his military service as a ‘Rough Rider,' » reports the National Park Service.

« He led a series of charges up Kettle Hill toward San Juan Heights on his horse, Texas, while the Rough Riders followed on foot. He rode up and down the hill encouraging his men with the order to ‘March!’ He killed a Spaniard with a revolver salvaged from Maine. Other regiments continued alongside him, and the American flag was hoisted on the heights of San Juan.

Republican presidential candidate William McKinley chose Roosevelt as his running mate during the 1900 campaign.

He called the victory « a great day of my life », writes the NPS.

He turned his fame from battle to governor of New York in 1899 and 1900. Republican presidential candidate William McKinley chose Roosevelt as his running mate in the 1900 campaign.

A lithograph showing Theodore Roosevelt riding the Rough Riders during their charge of San Juan Hill, near Santiago de Cuba, July 1, 1898.
(Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

He became the youngest president in US history, at just 42, under tragic circumstances when McKinley was assassinated on September 14, 1901.

« As President, Roosevelt held the ideal that government should be the grand arbiter of the conflicting economic forces in the nation, especially between capital and labor, securing justice to everyone and dispensing favors to nobody, » reports WhiteHouse.gov.

He served nearly two full terms, then ran for a third nonconsecutive term in 1912 as leader of the Progressive Party, following a split with the GOP.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the United States (1901-09), is shown seated at his desk working, circa 1905.
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

He edged out incumbent President William Howard Taft in the election, but lost the White House to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

Despite towering achievements that made him a hero of the progressive movement for more than a century, his legacy has recently been trashed by the same movement.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT STATUE REMOVED FROM FRONT OF NYC NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

The American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, an institution championed by Roosevelt in his hometown, removed the statue of him on horseback from its Central Park West location earlier this year.

His birthplace in Manhattan, which is part of the National Park Service, was closed during COVID-19 and reopened last month.

Roosevelt’s image was etched in perpetuity into the American landscape he loved as one of four presidents immortalized at Mount Rushmore, alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

Roosevelt’s name and image are still frequently quoted today on the hit TV show « Blue Bloods. »

“Let us place there, carved high, as near to the sky as possible, the words of our rulers, their faces, to show posterity what matter of men they were,” sculptor Gutzon Borglum wrote of his monumental relief.

« So breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and rain alone wear them away. »

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, OCT. THE 14 YEAR 1912, TEDDY ROOSEVELT HITTED BY A SHOT IN THE CHEST, STOPS THE CAMPAIGN A FEW MINUTES LATER

In more contemporary and less permanent iconography, Roosevelt’s name and image are still frequently quoted today on the hit television show « Blue Bloods », where his portrait hangs in the office of the fictional police commissioner of New York, Francis Reagan (Tom Selleck) .

Roosevelt was New York’s top cop from 1895 to 1897.

Bloodstained shirt worn by President Theodore Roosevelt, photographed following an assassination attempt by New York saloon keeper John F. Schrank, October 14, 1912, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
(Photo by Harlingue/Roger Viollet via Getty Images)

In an almost superhero-like incident that fueled his muscular and coveted American image, Roosevelt was shot in the chest by a would-be assassin during the 1912 election campaign as he ran for a third term of office.

The bullet’s speed was slowed by the contents of Roosevelt’s coat pocket, preventing it from being a deadly strike.

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He then delivered his 84-minute campaign speech, with the bullet lodged in his chest and blood soaking through his white shirt, before being rushed to hospital.

Roosevelt later said of his resolute reaction to the assassination attempt: « In the very unlikely event that the wound was fatal, I wished to die with my boots on. »

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Roosevelt went on to live for another six and a half years after the shooting.

He died in January 1919 at the age of 60.