Theodore Roosevelt

Privately tutored; graduated from Harvard University in 1880; studied law; traveled abroad; member, New York State Assembly (1882-1884); moved to North Dakota and lived on his ranch; returned to New York City in 1886; appointed by President Benjamin Harrison a member of the US Civil Service Commission (1889-1895), when he resigned to become president of the New York Board of Police Commissioners; resigned this position upon his appointment by President William McKinley as Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1897-1898; resigned to enter the war with Spain (1898); organized the First Regiment, United States Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as Roosevelt's Rough Riders; Governor of New York 1899-1900; elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket headed by William McKinley in 1900 and was inaugurated 4 Mar 1901; assumed the presidency upon the death of President McKinley on 14 Sep 1901; activated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890; established the supremacy of the federal government in the industrial field; moved against oil, tobacco, and other monopolies; persuaded Congress to establish a Bureau of Corporations with sweeping power to investigate business practices; intervened in labor relations indirectly defending the position of employees (arbitration of a strike by the United Mine Workers of America against the Pennsylvania anthracite coal operators); course labeled "Square Deal"; used the Big Stick Diplomacy in the acquisition of the Panama Canal Zone from Colombia in 1903; elected President of the United States in 1904; advocated Hepburn Act of 1906, which enlarged federal jurisdiction and forbade railroads to increase rates without approval; awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905; the unsuccessful candidate of the Progressive Party for President of the United States in 1912 and 1916; engaged in literary pursuits. [1]