Happy Birthday ABE!

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809.

President Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He was assassinated on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play entitled Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. This was the first Presidential assassination in American history.

The first formal observance of his birthday took place in 1866, the year after his assassination, when both houses of Congress gathered for a memorial address. While Lincoln's Birthday did not become a federal holiday like George Washington's, it did become a legal holiday in several states.

Abraham Lincoln is remembered for his role as the leader in preserving the Union during the Civil War and beginning the process that led to the end of slavery in the United States. He is also remembered for his character, his speeches and letters, and as a man of humble origins whose determination and perseverance led him to the nation's highest office.