On October 14, 1912, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was shot by a revolver at close range in the chest by John Flammang Schrank, as Roosevelt prepared to leave the Gilpatrick Hotel for a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin 🇺🇸 The bullet's impact was slowed down after passing through a thick steel eyeglasses case and a folded 50-page copy of his speech manuscript in his breast pocket. Theodore Roosevelt felt the impact against his chest. For an instant, he remained standing. Then he reached beneath his coat and felt the hole in his shirt. There was blood on his hand. Realizing he was not coughing up blood and that his lung was safe, Roosevelt insisted on going to the auditorium and delivered a roughly 80-to-90-minute speech before seeking medical help, famously opening with: "I don't know whether you fully understand that I've just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose." ..... Moments earlier, Roosevelt had been leaving a Milwaukee hotel to deliver a campaign speech when a man stepped from the crowd, raised a revolver, and fired at him from only a few feet away. The bullet struck Roosevelt in the chest. Men seized the gunman. Roosevelt’s companions called for a doctor. But the former president had other concerns. A crowd was waiting to hear him speak. . . . It was October 14, 1912, and Theodore Roosevelt was attempting one of the most audacious political comebacks in American history. He had already served nearly two full terms as president. Now, dissatisfied with his successor, William Howard Taft, Roosevelt had broken with the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party. Its supporters called themselves the Bull Moose Party because Roosevelt once declared that he felt as strong as a bull moose. His campaign divided old allies, enraged opponents, and yet electrified enormous crowds. But it also attracted John Schrank, a disturbed New York saloonkeeper who believed Roosevelt’s attempt to regain the presidency threatened the country. Schrank followed Roosevelt for weeks. In Milwaukee, he finally got close enough. The gunshot echoed outside the hotel. Roosevelt staggered but did not fall. His stenographer and several bystanders wrestled Schrank to the ground. “Don’t hurt him,” Roosevelt ordered. “Bring him here. I want to look at him.” Roosevelt took the gunman’s head in his hands and turned his face toward the light. He did not recognize him. “Officers, take charge of him,” Roosevelt said, “and see that there is no violence done to him.” Only then did he examine the wound. The bullet had passed through Roosevelt’s heavy overcoat. Then it struck the steel eyeglass case in his breast pocket. Behind that was the folded manuscript of the speech he was about to deliver—fifty pages of paper, doubled over. The steel and paper slowed the bullet just enough before it entered his chest. Roosevelt had been a hunter and soldier. He understood that a bullet passing into the lung often caused the victim to cough blood. He coughed several times into his hand. There was no blood. He concluded that the bullet had probably not penetrated his lung. His companions pleaded with him to go to the hospital. But Roosevelt refused. “If I die,” he said, “I want to have made this speech.” When he reached the Milwaukee Auditorium, his shirt was soaked with blood. The bullet was still lodged inside his chest. His aides attempted to explain what had happened, but Roosevelt walked onto the stage himself. The crowd quieted. “Friends,” he began, “I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot.” For a heartbeat, some people laughed, thinking he was joking. Then Roosevelt opened his coat and revealed the blood soaking his shirt. The laughter died and he continued: “But it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!” The auditorium erupted in cheers. #archaeohistories