November 16 is known as Have a Party with Your Bear Day but many sites do not explain the reason:
(No it’s not this reason.)
In 1902 while on a hunting trip with Mississippi Gov. Andrew H. Longino, President Teddy Roosevelt was offered the opportunity to shoot a bear tied to a tree. Seeing this as extremely unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear. News spread quickly (or as quickly as it could in 1902), that the great huntsman Roosevelt has refused to shoot the animal.
A political cartoonist, Clifford Berryman read about the incident and decided to comment on the president’s refusal to shoot the bear. Berryman’s cartoon appeared in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902.
The Haus of Dcaligari 