It didn't seem like Theodore Roosevelt ever felt at ease standing still. He was born on October 27, 1858, in New York City to a wealthy family. To help with his asthma as a child, he boxed, hiked, and rowed. That discipline became his way of life in the hard life.

He graduated from Harvard in 1880 and became a member of the New York Assembly at the age of 23. He became known for fighting corruption. Alice, his wife, and his mother both died on the same day in February 1884. He was sad, so he went to the Dakota Territory to work as a rancher, hunt, and deputy sheriff. The West made him look like a cowboy for good. In 1886, he married his childhood friend Edith Carow. They later raised six children at Sagamore Hill on Long Island.

He came back east and became the U.S. Civil Service Commissioner and the New York City Police Commissioner. He was known for walking his men on night beats to check on them. He got ready for war with Spain when he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy under William McKinley. He quit in 1898, formed the Rough Riders, the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, and led them up Kettle Hill near Santiago. He became a hero in the news.

In 1898, his fame got him the governorship of New York, and in 1900, the vice presidency. Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley in Buffalo on September 6, 1901. On September 14, McKinley died. That day, Roosevelt took the oath of office at the age of 42, making him the youngest president in US history.

He called his plan the Square Deal and said that the government had to find a balance between business and labor. He sued the Northern Securities railroad trust in 1902, which was the start of more than 40 antitrust cases. He passed the Elkins Act in 1903 and the Hepburn Act in 1906 to make sure railroads followed the rules. He signed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906, after Upton Sinclair's The Jungle came out.

His greatest legacy was conservation. He worked with Gifford Pinchot to protect about 230 million acres, make five national parks, 18 national monuments (including Devils Tower), and 150 national forests. He thought of public lands as a trust for the future.

He mixed negotiation with strength while abroad. In 1905, he helped end the Russo-Japanese War in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, making him the first American to do so. He was in favor of Panama's separation from Colombia in 1903 and pushed for the Panama Canal. He said that his way of dealing with people was to "speak softly and carry a big stick."

He left his job in 1909 to work for William Howard Taft, but they later split up. John Schrank shot him in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912, when he was running as the Progressive Bull Moose candidate. He spoke for 84 minutes with the bullet in his chest before going to the hospital. The split in the Republican Party led to Woodrow Wilson's election.

A trip down Brazil's River of Doubt in 1913Ð1914 ruined his health. In his last years, he wrote a lot and pushed for the US to join World War I. On January 6, 1919, he died at Sagamore Hill.

Roosevelt was a contradictory person: he was an aristocrat who praised the frontier, a warrior who won a peace prize, and a reformer who loved power. That restless mix still defines how people remember him in America.