America's 26th President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was on a hunting expedition in Mississippi. His hosts, didn't want the President to be disappointed at his lack of success in making a kill, so they caught a bear and tied it up for the President to shoot. The President, however was horrified at the prospect and famously refused to kill it. He is reported to have said "Spare the bear! I will not shoot a tethered animal". Word spread and the story was printed by the Washington Post along with a cartoon, drawn by Clifford Berryman, depicting the scene of the President and the tethered bear. That same month, inspired by the story, shopkeepers Morris and Rose Michtom made a toy bear and displayed it in their shop window, along with the cartoon. They named the bear "Teddy's Bear". The toy was an overnight hit.
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