Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. He previously was involved in New York politics, including serving as the state’s 33rd governor for two years. He was the vice president under President William McKinley for six months in 1901, assuming the presidency after McKinley’s assassination. As president, Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies.

Roosevelt assumed the presidency aged 42, and is the youngest person to become U.S. president. As a leader of the progressive movement, he championed his “Square Deal” domestic policies, which called for fairness for all citizens, breaking bad trusts, regulating railroads, and pure food and drugs. Roosevelt prioritized conservation and established national parks, forests, and monuments to preserve U.S. natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, beginning construction of the Panama Canal. Roosevelt expanded the Navy and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project naval power. His successful efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, the first American to win a Nobel Prize. Roosevelt was elected to a full term in 1904 and groomed William Howard Taft to succeed him in 1908.

Roosevelt grew frustrated with Taft’s brand of conservatism and tried, and failed, to win the 1912 Republican presidential nomination. He founded the new Progressive Party and ran in 1912; the split allowed the Democratic Woodrow Wilson to win. Roosevelt led a four-month expedition to the Amazon basin, where he nearly died of tropical disease. During World War I, he criticized Wilson for keeping the U.S. out; his offer to lead volunteers to France was rejected. Roosevelt’s health deteriorated and he died in 1919. Polls of historians and political scientists rank him as one of the greatest American presidents.