Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858. He was elected to the New York state legislature in 1881. Following his first wife's, Alice Roosevelt, death in February 1884, Roosevelt left politics to manage a cattle ranch in the Dakota Territory. In 1886 he returned to New York City, ran unsuccessfully for mayor, and married Edith Kermit Carow. Between 1889 and 1895 Roosevelt headed the U.S. civil service commission. From 1895 to 1897 he served as president of the Police Commission in New York City. In 1897 President William McKinley appointed him assistant secretary of the navy. He...