Mon Jul 09 2018

In the nation-altering election of 1912, a rare four-way contest, Woodrow Wilson became the 28th president of the United States. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to receive the Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created the Progressive Party (nicknamed the “Bull Moose Party”). Three weeks before the presidential election, Roosevelt was shot on the campaign trail and delivered a speech with a bullet lodged in his chest, less than a quarter inch from his heart. On the Democratic side, Woodrow Wilson finally received his party’s nomination on the 46th ballot at a contentious convention. Wilson, arguably the worst president in American history, won the election, gaining a large majority in the Electoral College and winning 42 percent of the popular vote.