9. Roosevelt Owed His Escape From Death to a Speech
Roosevelt reached inside his shirt and felt around, until he encountered a dime-sized hole, and told an aide “He pinked me“. The former president then coughed into his hand a few times. Seeing no blood, he determined that his lung had not been pierced. He then directed that he be driven to the Milwaukee Auditorium, to address the waiting audience. Whether or not the pen is actually mightier than the sword, in this case, it was conclusively demonstrated that words were literally mightier than a bullet.
TR owed his escape from death to his hefty speech. Squeezed into his jacket pocket, the speech had combined with a glass case and a dense overcoat to slow the bullet. It was later recovered lodged against his fourth rib, on a trajectory to his heart. As to the shooter, Schrank acted because of a dream, in which the assassinated President William McKinley had urged him to avenge him by killing his vice president and successor, Roosevelt. Schrank was found legally insane, and institutionalized until his death in 1943.