This Teddy Roosevelt trivia quiz has 60 free questions with answers and follows the 26th president from a sickly, asthmatic boyhood in Manhattan to the Dakota Badlands, the charge up Kettle Hill, the White House at 42, the Nobel Peace Prize, the Bull Moose campaign and the River of Doubt. Along the way it covers the Square Deal, the trust busting, the Panama Canal, the Great White Fleet, the 230 million acres he protected, the day both his wife and mother died, and how a bear hunt in Mississippi gave the world's most famous toy its name. The easy questions are ones most people know (which mountain his face is carved on, what "speak softly" continues). The medium ones ask about his family, his books, his ranch and his sports. The hard ones dig into the 1912 shooting, the Antiquities Act, his Medal of Honor and his last words. It works as a history class warm-up, a Presidents' Day round, or a challenge for anyone who has read Edmund Morris. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Theodore Roosevelt was which number president of the United States?
26th
He served from 1901 to 1909, first as McKinley's successor and then in his own right.
Q 02How old was Roosevelt when he became president, making him the youngest person ever to hold the office?
42
John F. Kennedy, at 43, remains the youngest person elected to it.
Q 03Roosevelt became president after the assassination of which predecessor?
William McKinley
He had been vice president for only six months, and was sworn in at the Ansley Wilcox House in Buffalo.
Q 04Which chronic illness plagued Roosevelt as a child and terrified his parents?
Asthma
A family hike in the Alps in 1869 convinced him that hard exercise helped, the seed of what he later called "the strenuous life".
Q 05Roosevelt was born in 1858 in which US state?
New York
The family home was at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan.
Q 06Which university did Roosevelt enter in 1876, graduating Phi Beta Kappa four years later?
Harvard
He rowed, boxed, joined the Porcellian Club and was already a published ornithologist.
Q 07Roosevelt's 1882 book, which made his name as a historian, was about which conflict?
The War of 1812
He began the research as a Harvard student, focusing on the role of the Navy.
Q 08On 14 February 1884, Roosevelt's first wife Alice and his mother died on the same day. Of what did Alice die?
Kidney failure
She had given birth to their daughter Alice two days earlier; his mother died of typhoid. Roosevelt wrote in his diary, "The light has gone out of my life."
Q 09After those deaths, Roosevelt recovered by running a cattle ranch in which territory?
Dakota
He built Elkhorn Ranch 35 miles north of Medora, learned to rope and ride western style, and once hunted down three boat thieves as a deputy sheriff.
Q 10In 1886 Roosevelt married his childhood friend Edith Kermit Carow in which city?
London
The wedding was at St George's, Hanover Square; the couple went on to have five children.
Q 11In 1895 Roosevelt took a job in New York City heading which body?
The Board of Police Commissioners
Mayor William Strong offered him the post; he had already been introduced to the city's slums by the journalist Jacob Riis.
Q 12Which post did Roosevelt resign in 1898 to go and fight in the Spanish-American War?
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
He had helped plan the naval war against Spain from that desk before deciding he wanted to see battle himself.
Q 13The Rough Riders were the nickname of which unit?
The 1st US Volunteer Cavalry
Q 21Which 1906 Upton Sinclair novel galvanised support for the Meat Inspection Act?
The Jungle
The laws banned misleading labels, harmful preservatives and falsely labelled food and drugs.
Q 22Roosevelt won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of which war?
The Russo-Japanese War
He was the first non-European to win any Nobel Prize; the treaty was signed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Q 23Why did Roosevelt choose Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to host the 1905 peace talks?
Its cooler summer climate
The talks began in August and he wanted to spare the delegates a sweltering Washington summer.
It was one of three volunteer cavalry regiments raised in 1898 and the only one to see combat; it was also called "Wood's Weary Walkers".
Q 14Who was the first commander of the Rough Riders, with Roosevelt as his second in command?
Leonard Wood
Roosevelt formed the regiment with him; its ranks mixed Ivy Leaguers, cowboys, miners and sheriffs.
Q 15During the famous charge in Cuba on 1 July 1898, Roosevelt was the only soldier on horseback up which slope?
Kettle Hill
He had to walk the last stretch after his horse got tangled in barbed wire; he called it "the great day of my life".
Q 16Roosevelt is the only president to have received which military decoration, awarded posthumously in 2001?
The Medal of Honor
His commanders had recommended him for it in 1898, but the effort was tainted by his own lobbying; Bill Clinton finally presented it.
Q 17Returning from Cuba a war hero, Roosevelt was elected to which office in 1898?
Governor of New York
The state party bosses disliked his reform agenda so much they pushed him onto McKinley's ticket in 1900 to get rid of him.
Q 18Complete Roosevelt's famous aphorism, first publicised in September 1901: "Speak softly and..."
...carry a big stick
The full line ends "and you will go far"; it became the label for his entire foreign policy.
Q 19What did Roosevelt call his domestic programme of fairness, trust-busting and pure food and drugs?
The Square Deal
His antitrust litigation earned him a second nickname, "the Trust Buster".
Q 20Roosevelt's first big antitrust case broke up Northern Securities, a monopoly in which industry?
Railroads
He brought 44 antitrust suits in all, and many were shocked that an unelected president would take on J. P. Morgan.
Q 24The Panama Canal route Roosevelt backed ran through territory that in 1903 belonged to which country?
Colombia
When that government rejected the treaty, a Panamanian rebellion, supported by Roosevelt, succeeded and a new treaty was signed in 1903.
Q 25Where did Roosevelt go in November 1906 on the first official presidential trip abroad?
Panama and Puerto Rico
The 17-day trip included a visit to the canal worksite.
Q 26How many battleships made up the Great White Fleet Roosevelt sent around the world in 1907-09?
16
They were split into two squadrons and got their name from the stark white paint on their hulls.
Q 27Roughly how much land did Roosevelt place under federal protection as president?
230 million acres
That included five national parks, 18 national monuments, 150 national forests and the first 51 bird reserves.
Q 28Which Wyoming landmark did Roosevelt make the first US national monument in September 1906?
Devils Tower
He used the brand-new Antiquities Act, which lets presidents proclaim monuments without Congress.
Q 29In 1903 Roosevelt created the first national wildlife refuge, Pelican Island, in which state?
Florida
He did it by executive order after bird advocates visited him at home to plead for the pelicans.
Q 30The teddy bear was named after Roosevelt following a hunting trip in 1902 in which state?
Mississippi
He refused to shoot a captured bear as unsportsmanlike; Clifford Berryman's Washington Post cartoon of the scene did the rest.