He was born in a log-cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky on February 12, 1809.

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was named after his paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, who had been killed by Native American Indians.

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had many nicknames, including Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator--but NOT The Industrial Giant.

On November 4, 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd, the daughter of Robert Smith Todd and Eliza Parker, prominent citizens of Lexington Kentucky. Abraham and Mary Lincoln remained married until his assassination in 1865. The death of her husband weighed heavily on Mary, as did the deaths of three of her children, and she became increasingly unstable. In 1875, she was committed to an insane asylum by Robert Todd Lincoln, her only surviving child. She died in 1882.

Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln had four sons: Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), Edward Baker Lincoln (1846-1850), William Wallace Lincoln (1850-1862), and Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (1853-1871). Only Robert survived into adulthood.

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln became the first U.S. President from the Republican Party which had been founded on February 28, 1854, primarily on the platform of opposing the expansion of slavery into new territories.

Hannibal Hamlin served as Abraham Lincoln's Vice President during the first term of Lincoln's presidency. Because of his close ties with the controversial "Radical" Republicans, however, who believed freed slaves deserved political and social equality with all other citizens, Lincoln chose to drop him from the Republican ticket in 1864 and replace him with Andrew Johnson, a Southerner and member of the Democratic Party. Lincoln won re-election but was assassinated shortly after his inauguration and Johnson became President.

The Homestead Act, signed into law by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, made millions of acres of government land (in tracts of 160 acres) available to any male over 21 who could pay the processing fee of $18. To make ownership of the tract permanent, an owner was required to live on the land and build it up for a period of no less than 5 years. The Homestead Act helped to distribute wealth evenly among a working populace and created an economic, agricultural, and social stability that fueled American growth and prosperity for decades. It is considered by many historians to be the single most important piece of legislation in American history.

On April 14, 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by the actor John Wilkes Booth while attending an evening performance of Our American Cousin, a musical comedy by the British writer Tom Taylor.

The U.S. five dollar bill currently features U. S. President Abraham Lincoln's portrait on the front side and the Lincoln Memorial on the back. Previous versions of the five dollar bill featured Alexander Hamilton (1862), Andrew Jackson (1869), and Ulysses S. Grant (1886).