George Washington’s birthday may be the inspiration behind Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday, but Long Islanders have an immortal of their own known simply as “Teddy.”
Ever since Theodore Roosevelt made Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay his home in the 1880s, Long Island’s Gold Coast became more than the playground of America’s rich and famous. It became presidential.
Roosevelt, who served out William McKinley’s term and won re-election, was America’s 26th president from 1901-09. He won a Nobel Peace Prize, built the Panama Canal, reined in big business and put conservation efforts into law.
His memory is still strong thanks to a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier bearing his name, reenactor Jim Foote’s bully presence (pictured) and the Washington Nationals’ fourth-inning Presidents Race.
How much do you know about one of the greatest presidents since Abraham Lincoln? Time to take our True/False TR quiz.
1. Sagamore Hill was known as the “Winter White House.”
2. Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize was for helping negotiate the end of hostilities between Russia and Japan.
3. TR established Yellowstone National Park.
4. Mount Rushmore includes the likeness of four presidents, including TR.
5. TR gave a campaign speech after being shot.
6. There have been four presidents from New York.
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt is TR’s son.
8. TR was the first president to go abroad while in office.
9. TR was the first sitting president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game.
10. Theodore Roosevelt is buried in Oyster Bay.
Answers: 1. False: “Summer White House”; 2. True: Nobel Laureate in 1906; 3. False: U.S. Grant signed Yellowstone into existence in 1872; 4. True: Washington, Lincoln, TR and Thomas Jefferson; 5. True: Wounded, he gave the “Bull Moose” speech in Milwaukee on Oct. 14, 1912; 6. True: Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, TR and Franklin D. Roosevelt; 7. False: FDR and TR are fifth cousins; 8. True: He visited Panama Canal construction in 1906; 9. False: William Howard Taft did in 1910; 10. True: Go visit him at Youngs Memorial Cemetery.
