On October 14, 1912, Teddy Roosevelt
was shot just before his 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.”