Presidential Firsts of Theodore Roosevelt
TR was the first President
to fly in an airplane
to be submerged in a submarine
to own a car
to have a telephone in his home
to travel outside the borders of the US while still in office. TR took the battleship USS Louisiana to Panama in 1906.
to entertain an African-American in the White House, inviting Booker T. Washington to dinner
to win the first AMERICAN as well as first President to win a Nobel Prize in ANY of the six categories - he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.
TR founded:
the first 51 federal bird sanctuaries
the first 18 national monuments (including the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, Muir Woods and Devils Tower)
First African-American as a dinner guest in the White House:
In 1901, right after he was sworn in as President after the death of President William McKinley, he invited Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Institute to the White House for a meeting. The meeting ran late, and TR invited Mr. Washington to dinner. This was the first time that an African-American was entertained at the White House as a guest.
First Presidential Airplane Ride:
At an airshow at Aviation Field in St. Louis, Missouri on October 11, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt was offered a seat as a passenger in a plane for a demonstration flight. The pilot's name was Arch Hoxsey, who had just completed a record flight from Springfield, Illinois. The plane reached an altitude of about 50 feet, circled the field twice and stayed airborne for about four minutes. TR said he wished they could have stayed in the air for an hour. Arch Hoxsey was killed in a plane crash on December 31, 1910. This flight made TR the first President to fly in a plane. There is a picture of him strapping himself in that does look as though he was the pilot, but he was not. On Monday, September 22, 2003, a reception was held at the Theodore Roosevelt Gallery in the Pusey Library at Harvard to mark the donation, by the family of the late Sarah Alden Derby Gannett, of Theodore Roosevelt's famous "Pigskin Library" to the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard. On hand for the occasion were former Vermont State Senator Robert T. Gannett, his three children, Alden Gannett Taylor, Robert T. Gannett, Jr. with his daughter Katherine, and William B. Gannett and his wife Anna , as well as many members of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), including President Norman Parsons and Executive Director John A. Gable. The host for the reception was Wallace Finley Dailey, Curator of the TR Collection. Also present was Tweed Roosevelt, Honorary Curator of the TR Collection. Senator Gannett has two degrees from Harvard, his son Bob graduated from Harvard, and his son Bill is a graduate of Harvard Law
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I spent my time searching for coffee (he drank about a gallon a day) looked up battleships, Simpson's memoribilia (hence Springfield lol) footballs (he had the "pigskin library")...man was i off...
