April 23, 1910: Touring Europe after his yearlong Africa safari, which he took after leaving the Presidency, Theodore Roosevelt gives a lecture at the University of Paris, a.k.a. The Sorbonne. He titles the speech "Citizenship in a Republic."
TR -- he didn't mind his initials being used, but he hated being called "Teddy," and his friends called him "Theodore" or "Colonel," his rank in the Spanish-American War -- was 51 years old, and had already packed a lot of living into those years. So he knew what he was talking about when, in the speech, he said:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
So it became known as "The Man in the Arena Speech." It has been a favorite of Presidents ever since. Richard Nixon quoted it on both the morning after his 1st election, November 6, 1968; and on the night he announced his resignation, August 8, 1974. A recording exists of John F. Kennedy quoting it. Barack Obama did so in his speech endorsing Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Democratic Convention.
On May 6, while TR was still in Europe, King Edward VII of Britain died. TR's successor as President, William Howard Taft, sent him a telegram, asking him to represent the United States at the royal funeral. While there, he met several of "the crowned heads of Europe."
He had previously met King Haakon VII of Norway a few weeks earlier, when he went to Oslo to accept his 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. On this visit, he met Edward's son, now King George V; and also Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (saying, "The Kaiser made a point of showing his intimacy with me and of discriminating in my favor over all his fellow sovereigns"), King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King Manuel II of Portugal, King George I of Greece, King Albert I of Belgium, and King Frederick VIII of Denmark. The only major monarch who did not attend was Czar Nicholas II of Russia, who sent several personal emissaries. All were closely related to the late King.
He wrote to a friend, "Not only all the kings I had met, but the two or three I had not previously met, were more than courteous." But he later grumbled privately, “If I met another king, I should bite him,”
He also remarked of Britain's Home Secretary at the time, "I dislike Winston Churchill and would not meet him." He would have known of Churchill for his books about the Boer War.
And of the man then heir to the imperial throne of Austria-Hungary, whose 1914 assassination would start the falling of the dominoes that began World War I? TR wrote, "The only man among the royalties who obviously did not like me was the Archduke Ferdinand, who is an ultramontane, and at bottom a furious reactionary in every way, political and ecclesiastical both."
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April 23, 1910 was a Saturday. French actress Simone Simon, best known for starring in the original 1942 film version of Cat People, was born.
This baseball games were played:
* The New York Highlanders and the Washington Senators were rained out after 6 innings at American League Park in Washington, with the score 0-0. The game was not made up. The Highlanders changed their name to the Yankees in 1913.
* The New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Superbas, 5-4 at the Polo Grounds. The Giants came from behind to score 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning. The Superbas, who became the Dodgers the next season, already viewed the intracity Giants as their rivals. The Giants did not agree, as this was still the period when they, managed by John McGraw, were rivals with the Chicago Cubs of Frank Chance.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 in 11 innings at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Eddie Plank outpitched Eddie Cicotte. Eddie Collins went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Tris Speaker went 0-for-5.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Boston Doves, 4-0 at National League Park (later renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia. George McQuillan pitched a 4-hit shutout. Named for their owners, the brothers George and John Dovey, the Doves were bought by William H. Russell in 1911, and he renamed them for himself: The Boston Rustlers. He died after 1 season, and they were bought by James Gaffney, an official in the New York political organization of Tammany Hall, a "Brave." He renamed them the Boston Braves.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 0-for-4 with a walk.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Naps, 5-0 at League Park in Cleveland. The home team was named for their 2nd baseman and manager, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. After he left in 1914, they were renamed the Cleveland Indians, and they became the Cleveland Guardians in 2022. Lajoie went 3-for-3 with a walk in this game. Shoeless Joe Jackson was on the Naps' roster, but did not play. For the Tigers, Ty Cobb went 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.
* The Midwest was hit by a late Winter storm. The Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds were supposed to play at the West Side Grounds in Chicago, but were snowed out. The game was made up on July 8, and the Cubs won, 3-2. Cub catcher Johnny "Noisy" Kling hit a home run.
* Also snowed out were the Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Browns, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 8. The White Sox won the opener, 1-0. Fred Olmstead allowed just 1 hit, a single by Frank Truesdale. The Browns won the nightcap, 6-4.
Both Chicago teams, the Cubs at home to Cincinnati and the White Sox away to St. Louis, had their next day's game's postponed as well, as the cold prevented the snow from being properly removed and the field from being in shape to host games. And it would have been too cold to play, anyway. And the day before the snow? Both teams were rained out, before the temperature dropped, and the rain turned to snow. So it was a rough week.
Also on this day, the season of England's Football League came to an end. Woolwich Arsenal Football Club lost to Lancashire team Preston North End, 3-1 at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, then in Kent, but now in South-East London.
Woolwich Arsenal went bankrupt that season, and were saved from going out of business by being purchased by real estate tycoon Henry Norris. He saved them in the boardroom, but not on the pitch: In 1913, they had what remains their worst season, the only time they have ever been relegated out of the top flight of English soccer. Norris then moved them to North London. In 1914, they dropped the locality from their name, and became simply "Arsenal Football Club." In 1919, they were promoted back to Division One, and have been there ever since.
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