Theodore Roosevelt: the record and the legends

The record

• RecordIn 1912, running for a third term, Roosevelt was shot in the chest outside a Milwaukee hotel. His folded speech and his glasses case slowed the bullet down. He gave the speech anyway, and only then went to the hospital.Source: Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, The Bullet Speech
• RecordRoosevelt kept boxing in the White House. A young artillery captain hit him in the left eye, and the sight in it stayed dim for the rest of his life. He kept it quiet for years and finally gave up boxing.Source: Theodore Roosevelt Center, Boxing
• RecordAn Army board turned down Roosevelt's Medal of Honor for Cuba in 1899. It was finally awarded in 2001, making him the only president to receive it.Source: Theodore Roosevelt Center, Medal of Honor Awarded to Theodore Roosevelt

The legends

• LegendIn 1904 he took jiu-jitsu lessons three afternoons a week in a White House office, later from a Japanese instructor. You'll see him called a black belt. No rank was ever documented, and he corrected people who overstated his skill.Source: Theodore Roosevelt Center, Jiu-jitsu
• LegendThe teddy bear story usually goes: Roosevelt finds a cute cub and lets it go. What happened in 1902 is that guides ran down a grown black bear and tied it to a tree, and he refused to shoot it because that wasn't sporting. A cartoon of the moment inspired a toy maker to sell Teddy's Bear.Source: National Park Service, The Story of the Teddy Bear

What he cared about

• A square deal between workers, business and customers. He went after monopolies and signed the Pure Food and Drug Act.
• Protecting land. He created 150 national forests, 5 national parks and 18 national monuments.
• A bigger American role in the world, from the Panama Canal to ending the Russo-Japanese War, which won him the Nobel Peace Prize.

The full record

In 1906 he discharged 167 Black soldiers of the 25th Infantry without a trial after the Brownsville Affair. Congress reversed it in 1972, after investigators found the men had been wrongly accused.

Questions about Theodore Roosevelt