Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, into a wealthy Dutch-American family in New York City. A sickly asthmatic child, he was put on a regimen of vigorous exercise, becoming the boxer and climber who would later preach the "strenuous life." He left Harvard for Columbia Law and the New York Assembly, taking a seat at 22.

In February 1884 his mother and wife Alice died on the same day. He retreated to a Dakota ranch for two years to rebuild. Returning, he reformed the New York City police, and in the 1898 Spanish-American War led the volunteer "Rough Riders" up San Juan Hill. He became governor of New York, then McKinley's vice president in 1900. McKinley's assassination in 1901 made him president at 42 — the youngest ever.

In office Roosevelt's "Square Deal" drove the Progressive Era. He activated the Sherman Antitrust Act and broke up Northern Securities. In the 1902 anthracite coal strike the federal government for the first time mediated between labour and capital. He expanded regulation of railroads, food and worker safety. He set aside roughly 230 million acres as national parks, forests and monuments.

In foreign policy he pushed "speak softly and carry a big stick" — backing the 1903 Panamanian secession to build the canal and mediating the 1905 Russo-Japanese settlement at Portsmouth, for which he won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. He sent the Great White Fleet around the world to display U.S. naval power. The Teddy bear got its name in 1902 after he refused to shoot a bear cub.

His record is not unmixed. His Progressivism did not extend to race, and his administration ran imperial policies in the Philippines and Caribbean. After leaving office in 1909 he split with successor Taft, ran in 1912 on the Bull Moose ticket, and split the Republican vote, handing the White House to Wilson. He died of a heart condition on January 6, 1919. He is one of the four faces on Mount Rushmore.