Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  It would have been his 199th birthday had he have dodged John Wilkes Booth’s bullet at Ford’s Theater back on April 15, 1865. Ok, so maybe old age would have taken him before now.

Honest Abe was born in a one-room log cabin on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky.

Lincoln went on to become a self-educated lawyer, U.S. Representative, and the 16th President of the United States.

He married Mary Todd (Lincoln) and they had four children together.

Many Americans and historians consider Lincoln to be the greatest President in United States history.  He held the Union together during the bloody Civil War.  He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

Booth had planned to kidnap Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate prisoners.  He decided to kill the President after hearing him speak about voting rights for African-Americans.

The Lincoln Tomb, Abe’s final resting place, is in Springfield, Illinois.

Andrew Johnson succeeded Abe as the 17th President.