17. When Teddy Roosevelt Was Shot
Theodore Roosevelt, the youngest person to ever become US president, decided in 1908 that two terms were enough. So he did not run for reelection that year and instead groomed his close friend William Howard Taft to succeed him in the Oval Office. By 1912, however, Teddy, or TR as he was often known, had come to regret his decision to walk away from the White House. So he returned to the campaign trail and ran for president as a candidate of the Bull Moose Party.
On October 14th of that year, Teddy Roosevelt made his way to a podium at the Milwaukee Auditorium to make a campaign speech 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 stump: “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have been shot“. As the horrified audience gasped, Teddy Roosevelt unbuttoned his vest, to reveal a bloodstained shirt beneath.