12. Teddy Roosevelt Stunned an Audience by Stating “I Don’t Know Whether You Fully Understand That I Have Been Shot“
In 1912, former American President Theodore Roosevelt had come to regret his decision to leave the White House in 1908. So he returned to the campaign trail, running for president as candidate of the Bull Moose Party. On October 14th of that year, he made his way to a podium at the Milwaukee Auditorium and opened with the unremarkable statement “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible“.
Next, however, he delivered one of the most remarkable lines ever uttered on the presidential stump: “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have been shot“. As the horrified audience gasped, TR unbuttoned his vest, to reveal a bloodstained shirt beneath and demonstrate his lucky escape from death. The former president then topped his previous statement with an even more memorable one: “it takes more than that to kill a bull moose!”