On July 14, 1918, Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, died in aerial combat over France during World War I. German pilots shot down his aircraft on Bastille Day and discovered his identity using documents in the wreckage. Because he was Theodore Roosevelt’s son, the Germans honored him with a state funeral and marked his grave with a cross made from parts of his plane. Quentin remains the only child of a U.S. president to be killed in combat.
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