50 Fun Facts About Lincoln

In what state was Abraham Lincoln born?

Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring farm, near Hodgenville in Hardin County, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809.

Whom did Abraham Lincoln marry on November 4, 1842?

They met in Springfield in 1839, and Lincoln broke off the engagement in early 1841 before the couple reconciled and married on November 4, 1842.

Which profession did Abraham Lincoln teach himself from borrowed books?

He never studied in an established attorney's office; he read law on his own from borrowed texts and was admitted to the bar in September 1836.

Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th president of the United States during which major conflict?

Abraham Lincoln led the United States through the American Civil War, serving as president from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.

Who assassinated Abraham Lincoln?

The shooting came just five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox; the assassin, a well-known actor, was tracked down and killed at a Virginia farm two weeks later.

What political party did Abraham Lincoln belong to when he was elected president in 1860?

Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, becoming the first president from the newly formed Republican Party. He had previously been a Whig.

Which document, issued by Lincoln, declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free?

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, declared all enslaved people in Confederate territory to be free.

What famous speech by Lincoln begins with 'Four score and seven years ago...'?

Delivered in November 1863, the whole speech ran only ten sentences, and 'four score and seven' counts back to the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

What was Abraham Lincoln's height?

That made him the tallest president in history, a full 12 inches taller than his 1860 opponent Stephen A. Douglas, the biggest height gap between two candidates on record.

In what year did Abraham Lincoln first win election to the Illinois State Legislature?

Lincoln lost his first run for the Illinois General Assembly in 1832, then won a seat in 1834 and went on to serve four consecutive terms in the state House.

What was the name of Abraham Lincoln's stepmother, who encouraged his education?

A widow with three children of her own, she married Thomas Lincoln in December 1819 and brought books such as Aesop's Fables and The Pilgrim's Progress into the household.

Lincoln briefly served as a captain in the Illinois Militia during which conflict?

He broke off his 1832 campaign for the Illinois House to serve, the only military service of his life.

Which legal principle against unlawful detention did Lincoln suspend in April 1861?

Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled in Ex parte Merryman that only Congress could suspend the writ, but Lincoln ignored the opinion and thousands of suspected Confederate sympathisers were held without charge.

In which city was Lincoln nominated for president on the third ballot in May 1860?

The convention was held in the Wigwam, a hall built for the occasion, and the front-runner going in was William H. Seward of New York.

What was the total amount of formal schooling Abraham Lincoln received during his childhood?

Despite his keen intellect, Abraham Lincoln received minimal formal education, with his total schooling amounting to less than one year. He was largely self-taught.

What job did Lincoln hold in New Salem, Illinois, in 1831 and 1832?

He later bought a New Salem store with William Berry, which in 1833 also became a tavern after Berry obtained bartending licences for them both.

Abraham Lincoln's famous debates in 1858 were against which politician?

There were seven debates with an atmosphere 'akin to a prizefight'; the Democrats kept the legislature and re-elected Douglas, but Lincoln came out of it a national figure.

Which Lincoln cabinet member, initially a rival for the Republican nomination, became his Secretary of State?

Doris Kearns Goodwin later called the cabinet a 'team of rivals'; Seward went on to negotiate the purchase of Alaska in 1867.

After a funeral train that crossed seven states, Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in which city?

He lies in the Lincoln Tomb alongside Mary and three of their four sons; the eldest, Robert, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Where was Abraham Lincoln born?

Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky, in what is now LaRue County.

Before becoming a Republican, Abraham Lincoln was a member of which major political party?

Abraham Lincoln was a committed member of the Whig Party before it collapsed in the wake of the 1854 Kansas–Nebraska Act, after which he joined the newly formed Republican Party.

What well-known nickname was given to Abraham Lincoln, reflecting his reputation for integrity?

'Old Hickory' was Andrew Jackson, 'The Little Magician' Martin Van Buren and 'Rough Rider' Theodore Roosevelt; Lincoln is also remembered as the Great Emancipator.

Which 1861 crisis over two Confederate envoys seized from a British ship did Lincoln defuse?

The North celebrated the seizure, Britain protested vehemently, and Lincoln eventually released the envoys rather than fight two wars at once.

In which state did Lincoln give his two-minute speech dedicating the Soldiers' National Cemetery in 1863?

The cemetery sits on the ground where the war's bloodiest battle had been fought four and a half months earlier, between July 1 and 3, 1863.

On the advice of 11-year-old Grace Bedell in 1860, Lincoln became the first US president to do what?

Bedell wrote that whiskers would help him win because 'all the ladies like whiskers'; the clean-shaven Lincoln met her in person on his way to Washington to show off the result.

Lincoln's portrait appears on the penny and on which US banknote?

He is also one of the four faces on Mount Rushmore, which draws about three million visitors a year.

At which theater was Abraham Lincoln assassinated?

He was shot at about 10:15 pm on April 14, 1865, then carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning.

How many children did Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln have that survived to adulthood?

Robert, born in 1843, went on to serve as Secretary of War and minister to Britain, and outlived his father by more than sixty years.

Abraham Lincoln is the only U.S. president to hold a patent. What was his invention for?

Patent 6,469, granted to 'Abraham Lincoln, of Springfield, Illinois' on May 22, 1849, covered inflatable rubber-cloth chambers that could be expanded to buoy a vessel over shallow water and folded away when not in use. It was never manufactured.

Who gave the two-hour oration that preceded Lincoln's brief remarks at the 1863 Soldiers' National Cemetery dedication?

Everett wrote to Lincoln the next day: 'I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.'

Which 1844 law partner described Lincoln's face as 'long, narrow, sallow, and cadaverous'?

Herndon was the third of Lincoln's three partners after Stuart and Logan, and after Lincoln's death lectured that his old partner had been a religious 'unbeliever'.

Lincoln's proclamation of January 1, 1863 declared enslaved people free in which areas?

It covered the ten states not then under Union control and exempted occupied areas and the loyal border states, which is why the Thirteenth Amendment was still needed.

Which federal stronghold in Charleston harbour did Confederate forces bombard to start the Civil War?

Major Robert Anderson had warned he was nearly out of food; Lincoln chose to resupply rather than reinforce, and the bombardment on April 12 and 13 rallied the North.

Who was Abraham Lincoln's Vice President during his first term?

Hamlin of Maine, a former Democrat, was chosen to balance the ticket; he was dropped in 1864 in favour of the Southern Unionist Andrew Johnson.

Abraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died from what illness?

Abraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died of milk sickness in 1818 when Abraham was nine years old.

Which of these famous quotes is attributed to Abraham Lincoln?

He said it in Springfield in June 1858 on accepting the Senate nomination, borrowing the image from the Gospels; the other three quotes belong to Patrick Henry, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Nathan Hale.

Which comedy was Abraham Lincoln watching the night he was shot?

The comedy was a favourite of the day, and the assassin timed his shot to a laugh line so the noise would cover it; Major Henry Rathbone, sharing the box, was stabbed trying to stop him.

Lincoln's wife grew up in an elegant 14-room house on West Main Street in which city?

She was the fourth of seven children of a wealthy slave-owning banker, and the house is now a museum; her Springfield cousin's husband was Lincoln's first law partner.

Which 1862 law signed by Lincoln opened western government land to settlers at low cost?

The same Congress also passed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act and the first Pacific Railway Act, laying the groundwork for the transcontinental railroad finished in 1869.

Which constitutional amendment, ratified in December 1865, abolished slavery?

The House passed it on January 31, 1865, on the second attempt, and it was ratified that December, eight months after Lincoln's death.

Roughly how many words long was Lincoln's Gettysburg Address?

Counts vary by a word or two between the five surviving manuscript copies, which is why 271 and 272 are both quoted; either way it took Lincoln about two minutes.

In 1863 Lincoln proclaimed which national holiday, to be observed on the final Thursday of November?

He issued the proclamation after Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg; earlier presidents had declared one-off days of thanks, but Lincoln's set the annual November pattern.

At which New York venue did Lincoln's February 1860 speech boost his presidential prospects?

Henry Ward Beecher had invited him to Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, but the event moved to Manhattan, where Lincoln argued the Founders had restricted slavery in the territories.

Sinking Spring Farm, where Lincoln was born, sits today in which local jurisdiction?

At the time of his birth the farm was in Hardin County; the new county was carved out of it in 1843, which is why older references disagree.

On what date did Lincoln's final emancipation proclamation take effect?

The preliminary version had been issued on September 22, 1862, days after the Union victory at Antietam, giving the rebelling states 100 days' notice.

After being shot, Lincoln was carried across the street to die in which building?

He died there at 7:22 the next morning; the boarding house is now part of the Ford's Theatre National Historic Site.

Lincoln's 1858 Senate nomination speech warned the government could not endure permanently in what condition?

He predicted the crisis would end with the nation 'all one thing, or all the other', an image borrowed from the Gospels that his advisers thought too radical.

Which of Lincoln's sons died in the White House during his presidency?

William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln died in the White House at the age of 11 in 1862, causing great grief to the Lincoln family.

Abraham Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, primarily worked in what profession?

He also worked as a carpenter, and he regularly hired his son out to neighbouring farms, keeping the boy's wages as the law then allowed.

Lincoln was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in what year?

He was honoured as an 'Outstanding American' and shares the museum's Presidential Grapplers exhibit with eight other presidents; his best-known bout was beating the leader of the Clary's Grove boys in New Salem.