The old lion is dead, Archibald Roosevelt wired his brothers 95 years ago today on Jan. 6, 1919, announcing the death of their father, Theodore Roosevelt. The 26th U.S. President from 1901-09, Roosevelt was the first Chief Executive to travel outside the U.S. when he went to Panama in 1906 (our first 25 Presidents from 1789 to 1906, stayed within our borders). He was the first President to drive an automobile, fly in an airplane and ride in a submarine, and also the only person to receive both the Nobel Peace Prize and Medal of Honor. And he was the first of our Presidents to be known by his initials -- TR. He wrote more than 150,000 letters and over 30 books, including the four-volume Winning of the West, a best seller. He had an incredible memory, able to quote huge portions of information, often in German, French, Italian and Latin. His daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, said this about TRs love of the limelight: My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening. At the time of his death, TR was the frontrunner for the 1920 Republican Presidential nomination. Party leaders conceded that if Roosevelt had lived, he would have had the nomination, wrote The New York Times in the wake of his death at the age of 60. blog.newspapers/category/historical-headline/
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 21:36:17 +0000
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