Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858 in New York City, New York, USA as Theodore Roosevelt Jr..

At the time of his first election to the New York State Assembly in 1882, he was the youngest person, up until that time, at age 23, ever elected to the New York State legislature.

His first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, and his mother, Martha Stewart "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt, both died on the same day, February 14, 1884, eleven hours apart. Alice died two days after giving birth to their first child, Alice Lee Roosevelt, of a combination of child birth and kidney disease, and Mittie died due to Typhoid Fever. In his personal diary, on that day, he wrote a large X, and one sentence, "The light has gone out of my life".

He married his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, in semi-secret, at St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London, England, UK, on December 2, 1886. She outlived him by more than 29 years.

Although a Republican, he was a closet supporter of Grover Cleveland, a Democrat (the 22nd and 24th President of the United States), in the Presidential Election of 1888.

Fifth cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both were U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Navy (TR April 19, 1897 - May 10, 1898, and FDR March 17, 1913 - August 26, 1920), both were Governor of New York (TR January 1, 1899 - December 31, 1900, and FDR January 1, 1929 - December 31, 1932), and both were President of the United States (TR was 26th, and FDR was 32nd). Even though they admired each other greatly, they were of different political parties, TR was a Republican, and FDR was a Democrat.

Although, as a Lieutenant-Colonel, he was second-in-command to his friend, Colonel Leonard Wood, for his army unit in the invasion of Cuba in 1898, the unit was known as Roosevelt's Rough Riders.

After the assassination of President William McKinley, he was sworn in as the 26th President of the United States on September 14, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, USA.

In 1906 became the first American to win a Nobel prize. He was awarded the Peace Prize for his efforts in concluding the peace treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese war. The medal he received is on permanent display in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House.

In his last will and testament, executed in 1912, he left the bulk of his estate, valued at $500,000, to his wife Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt. A further $60,000 trust fund was to be divided among his five surviving children, Alice Lee Roosevelt (Longworth), Theodore Roosevelt III, Kermit Roosevelt, Ethel Carow Roosevelt (Derby), and Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt. His sixth and youngest child, Quentin Roosevelt, died in 1918, while fighting World War I in France.

Pictured on a US 5¢ regular-issue postage stamp, issued 22 October 1922.

Pictured on the 30¢ US postage stamp in the Presidential Series, issued 8 December 1938.

Pictured on a 3¢ US postage stamp with General George W. Goethals, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal, issued 15 August 1939.

Pictured on the 6¢ US postage stamp in the Liberty series, issued 18 November 1955.

He was a writer and producer, known for Simple Gifts (1977), The River of Doubt (1928) and President Roosevelt at the Army-Navy Game (1901). He was married to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt and Alice Hathaway Lee.

Honored on one of fifteen 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the "Celebrate the Century" series, issued 3 February 1998, celebrating the 1900s.

Only person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize and a (USA) Medal of Honor. He received the Nobel Prize during his lifetime, while the Medal of Honor was not awarded until 2001, approximately 82 years after his death.

There is a photograph of President Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession passing in front of an apartment building on Broadway at 14th Street (Union Square) in Manhattan, New York City. In it, two young boys can be seen looking out the window. One is Theodore Roosevelt himself and the other is his brother, Elliot.