[1809] - Lincoln born, Kentucky

Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809. He became the sixteenth president of the United States in March 1861, serving until his assassination on 14 April 1865. He led the country through the American Civil Wars against the Confederacy of secessionist slave states in the south. Famous for his oratorical skill, epitomized most famously in the Gettysburg Address of 1863, and for his lifelong opposition to slavery, he succeeded in preserving the union of states, whilst promoting economic and financial reforms. He was a champion of the Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, which was passed by the Senate and Congress in 1864–5 and which abolished slavery throughout the country. In addition, he lived to see the defeat of the Confederacy when Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the Confederate forces, surrendered on 8 April 1865. Six days later, however, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC.

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