Of character and steam engines

NAIROBI: The assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 propelled Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the highest political office in America. He became the 26th President when he was barely 43 years old.

A Congressman, he is remembered for many things; initiating the construction of the Panama canal, irrigation projects, mediating between belligerents Russia and Japan in August 1905, bringing about truce for which he earned a Nobel Prize for Peace and for driving an aggressive American foreign policy.