Which U.S. president was in office when the Panic of 1907 struck Wall Street?

Theodore Roosevelt was U.S. president when the Panic of 1907 struck Wall Street.

The panic began after an unsuccessful attempt to corner the stock of United Copper Company. The failure of that scheme damaged confidence in institutions connected to the speculators, including the Knickerbocker Trust Company. When depositors rushed to withdraw funds, fear spread through New York’s banking system and financial markets.

Theodore Roosevelt was president from 1901 until 1909, so the crisis occurred during his second term. The federal government did not yet have a central bank capable of acting as a modern lender of last resort. Instead, financier J. Pierpont Morgan organized private support and persuaded banks to provide emergency liquidity.

The Panic of 1907 helped build political support for creating the Federal Reserve System. Congress established the Federal Reserve in 1913, after investigations and reform efforts. The crisis therefore connects a dramatic Wall Street episode with a major institutional change in U.S. monetary and banking history.