The President Who Randomly Liked to Challenge People to Fist Fights

today's video is brought to you by audible start listening with a thirty-day audible trial choose one audiobook and get unlimited audible originals absolutely free visit audible.com slash brain food or tax brain food - 500 500 more on them in a bit as well as a great audiobook recommendation from me now if you followed our websites this youtube channel or our brain food show podcasts very long you know one of our favorite historic individuals is Theodore Roosevelt among countless other reasons to be admired he's a man who enjoys a reputation as one of the most terrifying ly badass individuals to ever hold the office of leader of a nation with countless stories detailing his cartoonishly manly exploits but just a small sample to start at one point while he was living as a rancher some thieves stole his boat in the middle of an ice storm given the rather dangerous weather conditions you might think it just let them go but no this was Teddy and it was the principle of the thing he states in any wild country where the power of Laura's little felt or he did and where everyone has to rely upon himself for protection men soon get to feel that it is in the highest degree unwise to submit to any wrong no matter what cost of risk or trouble to submit to millions meekly to theft or any other injury is to invite almost certain repetition of the offense in a place where self-reliant hardihood and the ability to hold one's own under all circumstances ranked as the first of virtues thus he spent the next three days building another boat so he could track down the thieves who took his original boat once done it took him a few days of searching but using his prodigious skills as a master tracker he managed to find and capture the men however ultimately the river became too frozen over to continue to the nearest town that way so instead he sent his ranch hand companions home and marched the thieves on foot alone for 40 hours straight to town during the track he did not bind the thieves in any way as he felt sure that suffer from frostbite if he did so to keep them from overpowering him while they trudged along through the frozen wasteland he simply kept a gun trained on them and while they slept during rest periods he kept himself awake by reading Tolstoy is then relatively recently published Anna renina it's also noteworthy here that the cause of the weather conditions the facts he was in hostile territory in the middle of nowhere and escorting a trio of criminals who would have killed him without hesitation if it given them a chance he was within his rights to simply execute them on the spot and go home something the vast majority of lawmen of his era would have done Roosevelt however felt they deserved a trial impressed with how honorable a man Roosevelt was one of the criminals even wrote to him later from prison thanking him for being a peerless Sentinel of justice another of the thieves Roosevelt didn't even bother to press charges against stating the man didn't have enough sense to do anything good or bad and don't get us started on that time on October the 14th and 1912 when Roosevelt was shot in the chest at point-blank range shrugged it off and then proceeded to give a 90-minute speech as planned opening the speech by noting ladies and gentlemen I don't know whether you fully understands that I have just been shot but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose after the speed she went to the hospital where it was found that the bullet hadn't penetrated his lung as it had become lodged in his ample chest muscle when arsenate er y-yet and rushed the hospital after being shot he simply stated in the event of the wounds being mortal I wished to die with my boots on in yet another instance hinting at his moral badassery unlike many of his era Roosevelt was a strong supporter of black American rights including being the first president to invite a black man Booker T Washington to have dinner at the White House on October the 16th 1901 while this seems like a little thing today at the time it was anything but news of the controversial dinner traveled along The Associated Press was throughout the night the morning newspapers in many cases took the opportunity to attack both Roosevelt and Washington with fervor for instance the next afternoon the Memphis Scimitar reported the most damnable outrage which has ever been perpetrated by a citizen of the United States was committed by the president when he invited a n-word to dine with him at the White House it would not be worth more than a passing note as if Theodore Roosevelt had sat down to dinner on his own time with a Pullman car port but Roosevelt to the individual and Roosevelt the president's are not to be viewed in the same light my a US senator from South Carolina Ben Tillman even publicly proposed a retaliatory measure the action of president roosevelt's in inviting us n-word will necessitate our killing a thousand n-words in the south before they will reach their place again while this den age well did it guys soon after the dinner Roosevelt received an honorary Doctorate from Yale University along with famed novelist Mark Twain Booker T Washington was also present at this event Roosevelt spoke to Twain and asked the novelists for his opinion on the controversial matter Twain replied that a president was perhaps not as free as an ordinary citizen to entertain whoever he likes Roosevelt disagreed and a few days later he had had enough and made a public statements about the infamous dinner true to his no-nonsense style he simply said I shall have him to dine as often as I please as for his general opinion of black people Roosevelt would sum up his thoughts as this the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have and there is your opposite example of something that is aged incredibly well moving on from there to his mental badassery Roosevelt is famed having written several dozen books on a variety of usually academic subjects from covering his various adventures in the wilderness and things encountered their two scholarly works on different animals and historic figures like a biography on Oliver Cromwell he also read books on various historical events like the war of 1812 including at the age of just 23 writing the naval war of 1812 covering naval battles technology and strategy in that war this latter ultimately ended up being considered one of the most influential books in its academic field for decades to come including having made a significant impact on the u.s. Navy who at one point ensured a copy could be found on every ship in the fleet on the side he wrote countless editorials and it's estimated that he wrote over a hundred thousand letters moving back to physical badassery how about that time on one of his many famous adventures this one the river of doubt expedition he almost died when two of his crewmen's boats were about to crash into rocks potentially with dark consequences disregarding his personal safety completely in favor of attempting to protect his men Roosevelt jumped out of his own boat into the Swift River grabs the two boats and via his own strength he stops them from hitting the rocks in a discussion of his own personal safety in another instance II would note his thoughts on protecting those under him stating it was just as when I was a colonel of my regiment I always felt that a private was to be excused for feeling at times some pangs and anxiety about his personal safety but I cannot understand a man fit to be a colonel who can pay any heed to his personal safety when he is occupied as he ought to be with his duty oh and yes just in case you didn't pick up there along with all of the rest he did he was also a colonel in the US military this is when he helped form the so-called Rough Riders the first u.s. volunteer cavalry regiments during his time there his most famous exploit was probably his charged up kettle Hill where Roosevelt's the only one of his men with a horse at the time so an incredibly compelling target as they charged nonetheless rode at the lead of the charge he notes of this on the day of the big fight I had to ask my men to do a deed that European military writers consider utterly impossible of performance that is to attack over open grounds and unshaken infantry armed with the best modern repeating rifles behind a formidable system of entrenchments the only way to get them to do it in the way it had to be done was to lead them myself anyway going back to his standing against a raging river and rescuing his men from crashing against a bunch of rocks unfortunately for him in this instance he did sustained a serious injury to his leg including it becoming infected an injury that he never fully recovered from with frequent flare-ups for the rest of his life and in the immediate aftermath Roosevelt lost 55 pounds as you might have guessed from all of this Roosevelt was revered as a granite shins barrel chested mountain of a man who never shied away from a challenge not just built like a bull moose he was also an extremely competent and accomplished fighter who didn't let something as silly as a major heart condition slow him down you see frequently ill as a youth it was eventually determined he had something wrong with his heart among other ailments and when he was in college his physician wreck seek a career behind a desk and avoid any strenuous or stressful activities instead he took his weak heart as a challenge leading one of the most active lives imaginable and not at all doing anything stressful like you know running the United States and at one point almost single-handedly delaying the start of World War one for several years but more on that in the bonus facts so this'll brings us around to his randomly challenging people to fistfights as mentions born a sickly child who was plagued by a host of physical ailments throughout his formative years Roosevelt's life was changed forever at the age of 14 when on a trip to Moosehead Lake a group Halldor boys beat him up frustrated at his inability to protect himself Roosevelt decided to bolster his physical capabilities by taking up boxing setting the future presidents on a path that would culminate in him suplexing heads of state in the Oval Office from that point on Roosevelt basically spent every waking moment honing his body into a hunk of granite continually finding ways to improve himself physically and taking every opportunity you could to punch people for glory and fun although Roosevelt was viral accounts no means a fantastic boxer he was an incredibly tenacious and honorable one on one occasion taking a solid unguarded punch to the face during a college boxing competition after dropping his hands the moment the bell rung after all the round was over unhappy with the despicable blow the crowd became raucous but to their astonishment Roosevelt diffused the situation by jokingly telling the crowd hush he didn't hear and wiping his bloodied nose clean this would prove to be a running theme throughout Roosevelt's life with old Teddy never missing an opportunity to play to a crowd for example later in Roosevelt's career he would frequently entertain White House guests by demonstrating wrestling throws or challenging especially strapping guests to test his own mettle often coming out on top thanks to his proprietary blend of fighting styles you see in addition to being competent pugilist Roosevelt also studied jujitsu and judo under legendary martial artist and judo pioneer Yamashita Yoshiaki although Roosevelt initially studied and practiced judo to help him shift a few pounds after he noticed his midriff had become a little ungainly during his time in office he so greatly enjoyed the thrill of calm that he continued to study it eventually rising to the level of brown belt on the side we just think it's also fun to mention his propensity to go skinny-dipping in the Potomac River in the dead of winter as to why he did this he simply wanted to make sure his body and mind stayed hardened against even the most extreme of elements okay but let's rewind a little bit to his time as governor of New York Roosevelt there had a wrestling mat installed in his office so he could fight people on the spot Roosevelt's antics annoyed the hell out of those in charge of his safety who'd frequently tried to nudge Roosevelt towards gentlemanly pursuits more befitting a man of his station like billiards he was having approximately none of that sense continued to challenge anyone who seems like they might be able to beat him to a fight even a one-point challenging a den currents and the other former boxing and wrestling champion in the u.s. to see how he measured up as vice presidents and later President Roosevelt continued with this practice lining the White House's basement with wrestling mats so he could suplex people whenever he felt like it on top of that he would frequently test judo moves against his apparently understanding wife Ren's and members of White House staff and any visiting heads of state curious about where the stories of his physical prowess were in any way exaggerated Roosevelt also continued his former practice of tasking aides with tracking down prize fighters and boxing champions who they could convince to fight him all again with the man determines to never go soft and lest you walk away thinking Roosevelt only won so many of these bounce because nobody would seriously consider cutting the presidents in these fights but the truth of the matter is that Teddy took them very seriously and didn't just expect but two mounted his opponents to do the same he gave them his best and he required that they reciprocate thus he was on more than one occasion severely injured with the worst being when Roosevelt suffered a punched the left eye delivers a half dozen rounds into a boxing match against an army artillery officer the results of that punch was his retina detaching leaving him blind in that eye rather than fret about it Roosevelt simply choked it was a good thing it was his left eye he went blind in as he used his right to aim when he was shooting nevertheless the injury effectively ended Roosevelt's pugilistic endeavors in the White House for fear he might lose the other eye instead he switched to increasing his judo and wrestling matches for anyone who still wanted to try their luck in a fight with the bull moose and one thing you guys should certainly try is today's sponsor audible now you guys probably heard of audible you're on the internet you're watching a youtube video so I'm pretty sure you have they have the largest selection of audiobooks in the world bar none indeed when you join audible using our link below not only do you get one free audiobook but you also get unlimited audible originals from their monthly selection personally if you're looking for a book recommendation I would check out in the Plex by Steven Levy now I think I might have mentioned this one before but I was going through my audible history and I was like that was a really good book I enjoyed that one it's all about how Google got started it's a super interesting listen and Levy is a talented writer so just brings the story together it's fantastic start with audible today using our link below you get a 30 day trial and using that trial you get one free audiobook doesn't have to be the one I recommend though there are a huge range of audiobooks on that platform so you are sure to find something that you love but if you lost just get in the Plex but it's not just audiobooks like I said plus you can exchange an audiobook if you don't like it and you get to keep your audiobooks forever and listen on any device audible is fantastic go get it now audible.com forward slash brain food or text brain food one word to five hundred five hundred and let's do that bonus fact in 1905 tensions were mounting between the somewhat Allied France and Britain with Germany on the other side thanks to the first moroccan crisis in a nutshell this was on its face an issue of which European powers should hold sway over Morocco but more deeply this was about Germany getting a little nervous over Britain and France budding up to one another during the crisis French expansion of influence and how this all shifted power in Europe as tensions rose Germany attempted to get an official position from the US and Roosevelt but the general contention at this time in the u.s. was that the country should stay out of the conflict so Roosevelt stayed more or less publicly neutral eventually Germany considered simply going to war with France but were concerns that the British would ally with the French in retaliation in part thanks to Roosevelt's previous good work helping to mediate the russo-japanese war conflict resolution which earns him a Nobel Peace Prize by the way add that to the list Roosevelt was turned to to help convince France to agree to the conference between the different countries in this conflict 13 in total attended after securing a promise from Germany that it would back Roosevelt's decisions during the conference at this time Germany was under the impression Roosevelt would favor them rather than be neutral Roosevelt agreed to help and was able to convince France to attend this was a key point because the conference almost devolved completely at one point at the same time France was beginning to march troops towards the German border with Germany in turn mobilizing its own forces in response once Roosevelt joined in at the conference after securing France as a tendency then put forward a proposal to resolve the conflict which heavily favored France naturally Germany rejected it however with little support outside of austria-hungary and the u.s. not backing them as that thought along with their previous promised Roosevelt to back the USS decisions Germany finally gave in ultimately the conference had a peaceful ending with Frances position more or less winning out though there were a few face-saving provisions thrown Germany's way without Roosevelt helping to convince the French to attend the conference or had it broken off the conflict would have likely escalated to war which given many of the treaties that led to the escalation of World War one and the two sides involved here this may have seen some version of World War one happen almost a decade sooner than it eventually did so I really hope you found the video interesting if you did please do smash that like button below and do not forget to subscribe also check out today's fantastic sponsor audible who are linked to below and thank you for watching you

Channel: Today I Found Out

Views: 281,338

Rating: 4.9600263 out of 5

Keywords: today i found out, tifovidz12, tifo, awesome, facts, didn't know, Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt facts, Theodore Roosevelt life story, Theodore Roosevelt fist fight, Mojo in the Dojo, Theodore Roosevelt mixed martial arts

Id: YnvPZvk2MN8

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Wed May 20 2020