Thread by @marinamaral2

On this day in 1901: Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest ever American president.

He remains the youngest person to become President of the United States.

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Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was born on October 27, 1858, at East 20th Street in New York City. He was the second of four children born to socialite Martha Stewart "Mittie" Bulloch and businessman and philanthropist Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

He had an older sister, Anna (nicknamed "Bamie"), a younger brother, Elliott, and a younger sister, Corinne. Elliott was later the father of First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Theodore's distant cousin, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Roosevelt's youth was largely shaped by his poor health and debilitating asthma. He repeatedly experienced sudden nighttime asthma attacks that caused the experience of being smothered to death, which terrified both Theodore and his parents. Doctors had no cure.

Nevertheless, he was energetic and mischievously inquisitive. His lifelong interest in zoology began at age 7 when he saw a dead seal at a local market. After obtaining the seal's head, Roosevelt and two cousins formed what they called the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History".

Having learned the rudiments of taxidermy, he filled his makeshift museum with animals that he killed or caught; he then studied the animals and prepared them for display. At age nine, he recorded his observation of insects in a paper entitled "The Natural History of Insects".

Hiking with his family in the Alps in 1869, Roosevelt found that he could keep pace with his father. He had discovered the significant benefits of physical exertion to minimize his asthma and bolster his spirits.

Roosevelt began a heavy regime of exercise. After being manhandled by two older boys on a camping trip, he found a boxing coach to teach him to fight and strengthen his body.

Roosevelt was mostly home schooled by tutors and his parents. Biographer H. W. Brands argued that "The most obvious drawback to his homeschooling was uneven coverage of the various areas of human knowledge"

He was solid in geography and bright in history, biology, French, and German; however, he struggled in mathematics and the classical languages.

When he entered Harvard College on September 27, 1876, his father advised: "Take care of your morals first, your health next, and finally your studies."

Roosevelt did well in science, philosophy, and rhetoric courses but continued to struggle in Latin and Greek. He studied biology intently and was already an accomplished naturalist and a published ornithologist; he read prodigiously with an almost photographic memory.

While at Harvard, Roosevelt participated in rowing and boxing.

After his father's death, Roosevelt had inherited $125,000 (equivalent to $3.2 million in 2017), enough to live comfortably for the rest of his life. He gave up his earlier plan of studying natural science and instead decided to attend Columbia Law School.

Though his father had been a prominent member of the Republican Party, the younger Roosevelt made an unorthodox career choice for someone of his class, as most of his peers refrained from becoming too closely involved in politics.

Nonetheless, Roosevelt found allies in the local Republican Party.

While at Harvard, Roosevelt began a systematic study of the role played by the young United States Navy in the War of 1812.

On his 22nd birthday in 1880, Roosevelt married socialite Alice Hathaway Lee. Their daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt, was born on February 12, 1884.

Two days after giving birth, Roosevelt's wife died due to an undiagnosed case of kidney failure (called Bright's disease at the time), which had been masked by the pregnancy.

In his diary, Roosevelt wrote a large 'X' on the page and then, "The light has gone out of my life."

His mother, Mittie, had died of typhoid fever eleven hours earlier at 3:00 a.m., in the same house.

Distraught, Roosevelt left baby Alice in the care of his sister Bamie in New York City while he grieved. He assumed custody of his daughter when she was three.

After the death of his wife and mother, Roosevelt focused on his work, specifically by re-energizing a legislative investigation into corruption of the New York City government, which arose from a concurrent bill proposing that power be centralized in the mayor's office.

For the rest of his life, he rarely spoke about his wife Alice and did not write about her in his autobiography.

Roosevelt moved West following the 1884 presidential election, and built a second ranch named Elkhorn, which was 35 mi (56 km) north of the boomtown of Medora, North Dakota. He learned to ride western style, rope, and hunt on the banks of the Little Missouri.

Roosevelt brought his desire to address the common interests of citizens to the west. He led efforts to organize ranchers to address the problems of overgrazing and other shared concerns; his work resulted in the formation of the Little Missouri Stockmen's Association.

On December 2, 1886, Roosevelt married his childhood and family friend, Edith Kermit Carow. He was deeply troubled that his second marriage had taken place so soon after the death of his first wife, and he faced resistance from his sisters.

The couple had five children: Theodore "Ted" III in 1887, Kermit in 1889, Ethel in 1891, Archibald in 1894, and Quentin in 1897. The couple also raised Roosevelt's daughter from his first marriage, Alice, who often clashed with her stepmother.

Upon Roosevelt's return to New York in 1886, Republican leaders quickly approached him about running for mayor of New York City. He accepted the nomination despite having little hope of winning the race against Henry George and Abram Hewitt.

Roosevelt campaigned hard for the position, but Hewitt won with 41% (90,552 votes).

Fearing that his political career might never recover, he turned his attention to writing The Winning of the West, a historical work tracking the westward movement of Americans.

Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley, but resigned from that post to lead the Rough Riders during the Spanish–American War.

In November 1899, Vice President Garret Hobart died of heart failure, leaving an open spot on the 1900 Republican national ticket. Roosevelt was reluctant to take the powerless position and issued a public statement saying that he would not accept the nomination.

Additionally, Roosevelt was informed by President McKinley and campaign manager Mark Hanna that he was not being considered for the role of vice president due to his actions prior to the Spanish–American War.

Eager to be rid of Roosevelt, Platt nonetheless began a newspaper campaign in favor of Roosevelt's nomination for the vice presidency.

Roosevelt attended the 1900 Republican National Convention as a state delegate and struck a bargain with Platt: Roosevelt would accept the nomination if the convention offered it to him, but would otherwise serve another term as governor.

Platt asked Pennsylvania party boss Matthew Quay to lead the campaign for Roosevelt's nomination, and Quay outmaneuvered Hanna at the convention to put Roosevelt on the ticket. Roosevelt won the nomination unanimously.

After the campaign, Roosevelt took office as vice president in March 1901.

On September 6, President McKinley was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York when he was shot by Leon Czolgosz.

Roosevelt was vacationing in Vermont, and traveled to Buffalo to visit him in the hospital.

McKinley died on September 14, and Roosevelt was informed while he was in North Creek; he continued on to Buffalo and was sworn in as the nation's 26th president at the Ansley Wilcox House.

As a leader of the Progressive movement, he championed his "Square Deal" domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs.

Making conservation a top priority, he established many new national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the nation's natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, where he began construction of the Panama Canal.

His successful efforts to broker the end of the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. He avoided controversial tariff and money issues.

Elected in 1904 to a full term, Roosevelt continued to promote progressive policies, many of which were passed in Congress.

Roosevelt successfully groomed his close friend, William Howard Taft, and Taft won the 1908 presidential election to succeed him.

In polls of historians and political scientists, Roosevelt is generally ranked as one of the five best presidents.

On the night of January 5, 1919, Roosevelt suffered breathing problems. After receiving treatment from his physician, Dr. George W. Faller, he felt better and went to bed.

Roosevelt's last words were "Please put out that light, James" to his family servant James Amos.

Between 4:00 and 4:15 the next morning, Roosevelt died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill after a blood clot had detached from a vein and traveled to his lungs. He was 60 years old.

Upon receiving word of his death, his son Archibald telegraphed his siblings: "The old lion is dead."

Woodrow Wilson's vice president, Thomas R. Marshall, said that "Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight."

*Done*