1912 – Former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot and mildly wounded by John Flammang Schrank in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Roosevelt delivers his scheduled speech.
On October 14, 1912, while arriving at a campaign event in Milwaukee, President Theodore Roosevelt was shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank. Schrank believed that the ghost of assassinated President William McKinley had instructed him to kill Roosevelt. The bullet struck Roosevelt’s chest after piercing his eyeglass case and passing through a 50-page folded copy of his speech titled “Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual.” Schrank was disarmed and captured by Roosevelt’s stenographer, Elbert E. Martin, as he attempted to fire a second shot. Roosevelt intervened by shouting for Schrank to remain unharmed, preventing a potential lynching. Roosevelt reassured the crowd that he was in good health and ordered the police to take Schrank and ensure his safety.
As an experienced hunter and anatomist, Roosevelt correctly deduced that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lungs. He chose not to seek immediate medical attention and instead delivered a 90-minute speech while blood seeped into his shirt. Only afterward did he accept medical care. Probes and an x-ray revealed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt’s chest muscle but had not penetrated the pleura. Doctors advised that it would be safer to leave the bullet in place rather than attempt to remove it, and Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life.
1947 – Flying the Bell X-1 over Muroc Army Air Field in California, Captain Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in level flight, reaching Mach 1.05.
Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, in level flight while piloting the X-1 Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1.05 at an altitude of 45,000ft over the Rogers Dry Lake of the Mojave Desert in California. The success of the mission was not announced to the public for nearly eight months, until June 10, 1948. Yeager was awarded the Mackay Trophy and the Collier Trophy in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight, and the Harmon International Trophy in 1954. The X-1 he flew that day was later put on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
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