Theodore Roosevelt's Birthday
Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in New York City. He spent his birthdays on a family tour of Europe, at his own wedding, on campaign trains, on safari in East Africa and, at 54, recovering from a gunshot wound. After his death, his birthday became the first Navy Day.
Key Facts
| Born | October 27, 1858 |
|---|---|
| Birthplace | 28 East 20th Street, New York City |
| Married | Alice Hathaway Lee, on his 22nd birthday, October 27, 1880 |
| Last birthday | His 60th, October 27, 1918, at Sagamore Hill |
| Navy Day | First observed October 27, 1922, in honor of his birthday |
Born on East 20th Street
"On October 27, 1858, I was born at No. 28 East Twentieth Street, New York City," T.R. wrote in his Autobiography. He was the second of four children of Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, and he spent his early childhood in that brownstone.
The original house was torn down in 1916. After T.R.'s death, a re-creation was built on the same site, and it opened on his birthday in 1923. Today it is Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, run by the National Park Service.
Theodore Roosevelt's birthplace. 28 East 20th Street, New York, c. 1927
The First Birthday It Snowed
T.R. turned 11 in Europe, on his family's yearlong grand tour. On the evening of his birthday the family boarded a night train in Berlin. Snow fell through the night, and in Cologne the next day they celebrated. "It is my birthday and the first of my birthdays that it snowed on," he wrote in his diary that day. Decades later he still remembered that evening in Cologne: to give him "a thoroughly 'party' feeling," he wrote in his Autobiography, "my mother put on full dress for my birthday dinner."
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt (Alice Hathaway Lee), three-quarter length portrait, between about 1880 and 1884
A Wedding on His 22nd Birthday
On October 27, 1880, T.R. married Alice Hathaway Lee at the First Parish Church in Brookline, Massachusetts. It was his 22nd birthday, a few months after he graduated from Harvard.
Their marriage lasted less than three and a half years. Alice died on February 14, 1884, two days after giving birth to their daughter, Alice, and hours after T.R.'s mother died in the same house. That June, T.R. went west to the Badlands, where he soon chose the site of his Elkhorn Ranch.
Birthdays on the Campaign Trail
Late October is the height of election season, and T.R. often spent his birthday asking for votes. On his 28th birthday, in 1886, the Republican candidate for mayor of New York spoke to a packed hall at Cooper Union. On his 40th, in 1898, as he ran for Governor of New York, Chauncey Depew presented him a gold-headed ebony cane from the speakers and reporters on his campaign train. On his 42nd, campaigning for Vice President, his fellow speakers gave him gold cuff buttons in the dining car of the campaign train.
Fifty, on Horseback
T.R. marked his 50th birthday, in 1908, on horseback. "I had celebrated my fiftieth birthday," he later wrote, "by riding my jumping horse, Roswell, over all the jumps in Rock Creek Park, at Washington."
He wrote that line in African Game Trails, his account of the 1909–1910 safari on which his 51st birthday found him on the march in British East Africa: "On the 27th we were marching hard, and I had no chance to hunt; I would have liked to take a hunt, because it was my birthday."
President Theodore Roosevelt on horseback, jumping over a fence, c. 1907
A Birthday After the Bullet
On October 14, 1912, a gunman shot T.R. in Milwaukee as he campaigned for President on the Progressive ticket. Thirteen days later he spent his 54th birthday quietly at Sagamore Hill, resting while his wound healed. His doctors came out from New York to dress the wound. Telegrams poured in, and cars full of sightseers crowded the road up the hill. Three days later he was back on the stage at Madison Square Garden.
Sagamore Hill, c. 1904. Photograph by Edward S. Curtis
The Last Birthday
T.R. turned 60 on October 27, 1918, at Sagamore Hill. His youngest son, Quentin, had been killed in France that July. Archie, sent home after being wounded, was the only son who could be there. The Sun reported that no one outside the family came to Sagamore Hill, and that he spent most of the day playing with his grandchildren.
His sister Corinne later wrote that she sent him a message every year on his birthday. That year he answered by hand. As she printed it in her memoir, he wrote, "you and I have known long years of happiness, and you are as young as I am old," and signed it "Methusaleh's Understudy." Two weeks later he entered the hospital. He died on January 6, 1919.
Navy Day
T.R. served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and, as President, sent the Great White Fleet around the world. In 1922 the first Navy Day was held on October 27, his birthday. Navy ships held open house in ports on both coasts, and Admiral Hilary P. Jones, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, laid a wreath at his grave in Oyster Bay. The same day, the Post Office issued a new 5-cent stamp bearing his portrait.
"The Spirit of Navy Day, 1927," cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman
Sign T.R.’s Birthday Card
Add your birthday wishes to the card.
Explore More
Timeline of T.R.’s Birthdays
Where he was on October 27, from a New York brownstone to Sagamore Hill.
Christmas with Theodore Roosevelt
Stockings before breakfast, Archie's secret tree and Christmas at Sagamore Hill.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Holidays
Follow T.R. through the days of the year that meant the most to his family.
Primary Sources
- An Autobiography (1913)
- Theodore Roosevelt’s Diaries of Boyhood and Youth (1928)
- African Game Trails (1910)
- Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, My Brother, Theodore Roosevelt (1921)
From the Archives
Letters, telegrams and cartoons about T.R.’s birthdays from the Theodore Roosevelt Center.
Recommended Reading
- Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site (National Park Service)