Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday: 7 things you didn’t know about our 16th president
(NEWS10) — Honestly, Wednesday, February 12 is the birthday of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky. His mother died when he was ten and his father worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter, barely scraping together a living. Lincoln was mostly self-educated, but managed to become one of the country’s most prominent and respected lawyers before entering politics.
Abraham Lincoln took the Presidential Oath of Office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 1861. A month later, the South Carolina militia fired the first shots of the Civil War on fort Sumter in Charleston.
To celebrate Lincoln’s birthday here are a few more fun facts about our 16th president:
- Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States when he took office in 1861 just before the outbreak of the civil war
- Lincoln has been honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Lincoln was known in his time as a skilled wrestler with only one recorded defeat.
- Lincoln signed the legislation authorizing the creation of the U.S. Secret Service just hours before his assassination.
- In 1876, a group of graverobbers nearly stole Lincoln’s body. They were foiled by a group of Secret Service agents who infiltrated the group and set a trap.
- John Wilkes Booth’s brother, Edwin Booth, considered America’s greatest actor at the time, saved the life of Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert by pulling him out of the path of an oncoming train.
- Lincoln never slept in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom. Lincoln used the room mainly as an office. The room is now rumored to be haunted!
- Illinois may be “the Land of Lincoln,” but Lincoln didn’t move there until he was 21. He was born and raised in Kentucky and Indiana.