Which U.S. president was in office during the October 1907 stock-market panic?

Theodore Roosevelt was U.S. president during the October 1907 stock-market panic.

The Panic of 1907 developed after a failed attempt to corner the stock of United Copper Company. The failure spread distrust among banks and trust companies, while withdrawals and tight credit put pressure on the financial system. The Knickerbocker Trust Company of New York collapsed, intensifying the crisis.

Roosevelt’s administration did not have a modern central bank to provide emergency liquidity; the Federal Reserve would not be created until 1913. Financier J. P. Morgan organized private support, persuading banks and wealthy institutions to supply funds and stabilize key firms. The episode showed the risks of depending on a private individual during a national banking emergency.

The panic helped build political support for monetary and banking reform. The Aldrich–Vreeland Act of 1908 created emergency currency provisions and established a commission that studied central banking. Those developments eventually contributed to the Federal Reserve Act. William Howard Taft succeeded Roosevelt in March 1909, after the panic had subsided.