On the first foreign trip by a U.S. president, President Theodore Roosevelt departs the United States for Panama aboard the battleship Louisiana.
The visit came three years after Roosevelt gave tacit U.S. military support to the Panamanian revolt against Colombian rule. Panamanian independence allowed American engineers to begin work on the Panama Canal project–an effort to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a U.S.-administered canal across the Isthmus of Panama.
During his four days in Panama, Roosevelt visited the project site, where construction preparations were underway. After leaving Panama, Roosevelt traveled to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and then returned to the United States on November 26.