The United States has had 46 presidents to date, with 45 men serving in the position. As per Article Two of the United States Constitution, a person must be at least 35 years old to be eligible to take office. 

The youngest person to have served as the US president is Theodore Roosevelt. He took office at the age of 42 in 1901 after William McKinley was assassinated. He served as the 26th president of the United States, from 1901 to 1909. He is ranked as one of the greatest American presidents.

Roosevelt’s personal life was quite tragic. His first wife died two days after giving birth to their daughter of kidney failure in Feb 1884. On the same day, Roosevelt’s mother Martha also passed away from typhoid fever. He remarried on December 2, 1886.

Earlier, he was the 33rd governor of New York for two years, taking office in 1898. He later assumed the role of vice president under President McKinley for six months in 1901. 

Roosevelt was behind initiating the construction of the Panama Canal. He appointed John Findley Wallace as chief engineer of the Panama Canal Project. However, he resigned because of several logistical issues.

Roosevelt became the first American to win a Nobel Prize when he was awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for ending the Russo-Japanese War.

He was the leader of the progressive movement and championed his “Square Deal” domestic policies. It aimed at fairness for all citizens, breaking bad trusts, regulating railroads, and pure food and drugs. He also worked for the conservation of national parks, monuments and forests. 

Roosevelt was elected to a full term in 1904 and wanted William Howard Taft to succeed him in 1908. However, it didn’t work out and he grew frustrated with his way of working. He tried to win the 1912 Republican presidential nomination but failed. 

He then went on to establish the new Progressive Party and ran in the presidential election in 1912. However, Democratic Woodrow Wilson won this time.

Roosevelt went on a four-month expedition to the Amazon basin. Here he caught a tropical disease and nearly died. His health started to decline and he died in 1919.