On October 14, 1912, Teddy Roosevelt was shot mid-speech. Because the would-be assassin’s arm was jostled, he missed Roosevelt’s head and hit him square in the chest. The bullet, slowed by a 50-page copy of the President’s speech and his steel glasses case, didn’t hit any major organs, so he just asked the audience to quiet down while he went ahead and spoke for another hour. Source
“Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
First page of speech:
John Schrank, would-be assassin, and his revolver:
Chest X-ray:
“In the very unlikely event of the wound being mortal I wished to die with my boots on.”
“I don’t really give much of a shit, so let’s just see where this goes after my speech.”





