Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the US, and he was often referred to as “Teddy”.
In 1902, when he was the President, he was invited by the governor of Mississippi for a bear hunting trip.
Most people competing in the hunting group had killed an animal but Roosevelt was struggling.
Soon, his assistants cornered a bear, and after beating it, tied it to a tree.
They then summoned Roosevelt to come and shoot the bear.
Roosevelt refused to shoot—mentioning that the action would be unsportsmanlike—but instructed that the injured bear be killed to put it out of its misery.
This news spread quickly, and soon newspapers carried articles on this episode.
A political cartoonist, Clifford Berryman, read one of these articles and drew a satirical cartoon on the President’s refusal to shoot the captive bear.
In Brooklyn, a candy shop owner, Morris Michtom, saw the cartoon, made a stuffed bear, and sent it to Roosevelt seeking permission to name the toy bear after him.
Theodore gave the permission, and the toy bear was named Teddy Bear.
Morris Michtom then put one in his shop’s window and it was an immediate success.
And this led to the massive rise of Morris Michtom, who in 1903 founded Ideal Novelty and Toy Co. (Tyco Toys bought this company in 1989 for $43.9 million).
