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Theodore Roosevelt was named President when William McKinley was assassinated. As Vice President, Roosevelt automatically assumed the presidency after McKinley died on September 14, 1901, following an assassination attempt eight days earlier.
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The 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike was a major labor dispute that caused an energy crisis when miners walked out over poor working conditions and low pay, threatening winter heating supplies
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The Elkins Act was a 1903 US federal law that targeted the railroad industry's corrupt and discriminatory practice of giving secret rebates to favored, high-volume corporate shippers. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the act into law on February 19, 1903, as part of his "Square Deal" domestic program, which aimed to regulate corporations and protect the public.
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Pelican Island in Florida was officially named the country's first national wildlife refuge by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903. This action established the first unit of what would become the National Wildlife Refuge System. The refuge was created to protect brown pelicans and other wading birds from extinction due to hunting for feathers.
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The Pure Food and Drug Act was passed on June 30, 1906, after public outcry from Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, which exposed unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry. Signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, it prohibited the interstate sale of adulterated or misbranded food and drugs and was a key piece of Progressive Era legislation.
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Devil's Tower National Monument is America's first national monument, a striking geological feature in northeastern Wyoming near the Black Hills of South Dakota. The igneous rock butte rises dramatically 867 feet above the Belle Fourche River.
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Immediately after his presidency ended in 1909, Theodore Roosevelt embarked on an 11-month scientific and hunting expedition in Africa, co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. The trip aimed to collect specimens for the Smithsonian's new natural history museum
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Theodore Roosevelt ran unsuccessfully for president in 1912 as the candidate for the Progressive, or "Bull Moose," Party. He was defeated by Democrat Woodrow Wilson after splitting the Republican vote with the incumbent, William Howard Taft.