Abraham Lincoln Events

1809 Feb 12 Abraham Lincoln is Born
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, two uneducated farmers, in a one-room log cabin on the 348-acre (1.4 km2) Sinking Spring Farm, in southea...
1816 Dec Lincoln's Family Relocates to Indiana
Abraham Lincoln spent 14 of his most formative years-from age 7 to 21-in Southern Indiana. Today, Indiana's Lincoln attractions include his boyhood home and some of the most extensive col...
1818 Oct 5 Mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln Dies of Milk Sickness
Among the many obscure ailments that afflicted Midwestern pioneers, it is doubtful if one has been more shrouded in mystery than was milk sickness. The disease was unknown in Europe or an...
1819 Dec 5 Father Thomas Lincoln Remarries Widow Sarah Bush Johnston
Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln (December 13, 1788 - April 12, 1869) was the second wife of Thomas Lincoln and stepmother of President of the United States Abraham Lincoln. She was born in El...
1828 Jan 20 Lincoln's Elder Sister Sarah Lincoln Dies during Childbirth
Sarah Lincoln Grigsby, sister of Abraham Lincoln, would never know her younger brother's success and fame, nor how he would be remembered. As a result of her brother's fame, her own life ...
1828 Apr Lincoln Works on Cargo Flatboat Bound for New Orleans
When, in 1860, the Ship of State seemed like to run aground hopelessly, it was his determination and ingenuity that averted total wreck. As in his youth he saved the flatboat, so in his m...
1830 Mar Lincoln Family Relocates to Illinois
Abraham Lincoln arrived with his family in the area in 1830 to settle a section of government land bisected by the river. The site, now Lincoln Trail Homestead State Memorial, was selecte...
1831 Mar Lincoln Makes Second Flatboat Trip to New Orleans
In 1830 the Lincolns left Indiana for Illinois. Abraham made a second flatboat trip to New Orleans, and in 1831 he left home for New Salem, in Sangamon County near Springfield. The separa...
1831 Jul Lincoln Separates from Family
In 1831, Abraham Lincoln was a young man of 22 when he and a couple of companions floated down the Sangamon River in a flatboat on their way to New Orleans. In mid-April, he neared New Sa...
1832 Mar Lincoln Becomes a Candidate for Illinois General Assembly
Lincoln began his political career in 1832 at age 23 with an unsuccessful campaign for the Illinois General Assembly as a member of the Whig Party. The centerpiece of his platform was the...
1832 Apr 21 Lincoln Makes First Enlistment in the Black Hawk War
His first enlistment was as elected captain of a company in the 4th Regiment of Mounted Volunteers, of Gen. Samuel Whiteside's Brigade. Lincoln enrolled on April 21, 1832, and mustered ou...
1832 May 29 Lincoln Re-enlists in the Black Hawk War
Lincoln re-enlisted on the same day he mustered out of his old company, and was mustered in on May 29 as a private in Captain Elijah Ises' Company, Twenty-Day Interim Regiment. He activel...
1832 Jun 20 Lincoln Enlists in Black Hawk War for a Third Time
Lincoln's third enlistment was as a private in Captain Jacob M. Early's "Spy Company." This unit mustered in approximately June 20, 1832, and served as part of General Atkinson’s army as ...
1832 Aug 6 Lincoln Becomes Postmaster of New Salem
Lincoln was appointed his postmaster's position by President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat, on May 7, 1833. In Lincoln's 1860 autobiography, he pointed out that the office was "too insignifi...
1833 Oct Lincoln Takes up Work as a Surveyor
‘In the fall of 1833 came Abraham Lincoln’s entry into the most highly technical and responsible work he had known. Writing of it later, he said, "The Surveyor of Sangamon [County] offere...
1834 Aug 4 Lincoln is Elected to the Illinois State Legislature
In 1834, he won an election to the state legislature and, after coming across the Commentaries on the Laws of England, began to teach himself law
1837 Mar 1 Lincoln is admitted to the Bar
Admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois that same year and began to practice law with John T. Stuart. With a reputation as a formidable adversary during cross-exam...
1842 Nov 4 Abraham Lincoln Weds Mary Todd
On November 4, 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd, daughter of a prominent slave-owning family from Kentucky. The couple had four sons. Robert Todd Lincoln was born in Springfield, Illinois o...
1846 Aug 3 Lincoln Elected to Congress as Whig Representative from Illinois
In 1846 Lincoln was elected to one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. A staunch Whig, Lincoln often referred to party leader Henry Clay as his political idol. As a freshman House ...
1849 May 22 Lincoln Receives a Patent
As a young man, Abraham Lincoln took a boatload of merchandise down the Mississippi River from New Salem to New Orleans. At one point the boat slid onto a dam and was set free only after ...
1851 Dec Lincoln Represents the Alton & Sangamon Railroad
In 1851, he represented the Alton & Sangamon Railroad in a dispute with one of its shareholders, James A. Barret. Barret had refused to pay the balance on his pledge to that corporation o...
1854 Oct 16 Lincoln Delivers Peoria Speech
Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Abraham Lincoln Speech at Peoria, Illinois October 16, 1854 The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the propriety of its restora...
1858 May Lincoln Uses Judicial Notice in the "Armstrong Case"
The Trial The acquittal represented a personal and professional triumph for Lincoln, who once rocked the defendant's cradle in New Salem. Lincoln took over the defense after a change o...
1858 Jun 16 Abraham Lincoln Delivers the House Divided Speech
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect t..." —Abraham Lincoln
1858 Aug 21 Lincoln Loses First of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates on Slavery
August 21, 1858, was the day that Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas met in Ottawa, Illinois, in the first of the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Ottawa is a town in north-central Ill...
1858 Aug 27 Freeport Doctrine Is Focal Point in Douglas' Argument at the Second Lincoln-Douglas Debate
At Freeport Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. Douglas replied that settlers could circumvent the decision by not establishing the l...
1858 Sep 15 Third Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Slave State Borders
MR. DOUGLAS’ SPEECH. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I appear before you today in pursuance of a previous notice, and have made arrangements with Mr. Lincoln to divide time, and discuss with him...
1858 Sep 18 Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Coles County Fairgrounds
Fourth Joint Debate at Charleston Mr. Lincoln’s Speech (September 18, 1858) LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It will be very difficult for an audience so large as this to hear distinc...
1858 Oct 7 Douglas Seeks to Prove that Lincoln was an Abolitionist at the Fifth Lincoln-Douglas Debate
At Galesburg Douglas sought again to prove that Lincoln was an abolitionist with the following quotes from Lincoln: “I should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of Independen...
1858 Oct 13 Lincoln Declares Slavery a Moral Wrong in the Sixth Lincoln-Douglas Debate
It was, wrote Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer of the Quincy Debate between U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, “the nastiest of the campaign.” Lincoln advisors ...
1858 Oct 15 The Slave Debate Comes to a Head at the Seventh and Final Lincoln-Douglas Debate
SENATOR DOUGLAS’ SPEECH. Long and loud bursts of applause greeted Senator Douglas when he appeared on the stand. As he was about to commence speaking, he was interrupted by Dr. Hope, o...
1860 Feb 27 Mathew Brady Photographs Abraham Lincoln Before His Pre-Presidential Speech
Mathew Brady photographed presidential aspirant Abraham Lincoln before his February 27, 1860 speech at Cooper Union in New York. Harper's Weekly published Brady's image as a woodcut on it...
1860 Nov 6 Abraham Lincoln Elected 16th President of the United States
Lincoln was chosen as the Republican candidate for the 1860 election for several reasons. His expressed views on slavery were seen as more moderate than those of rivals William H. Seward ...
1861 Feb 22
to 1861 Feb 23
 The Baltimore Plot to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln
The Baltimore Plot was an alleged conspiracy in late February 1861 to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln en route to his inauguration. Allan Pinkerton, eponymous founder of the P...
1861 Mar 4 Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
"The mystic chords of memory . . . will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." —Abraham Lincoln
1861 May 25 Ex Parte Merryman
On May 25, 1861, a secessionist named John Merryman was imprisoned by military order at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Md., for his alleged pro-Confederate activities. Supreme Court Chief Justi...
1862 Feb 25 Lincoln Signs the First Legal Tender Act
The beginning of 1862 found the Union unable to redeem its Demand Notes, which it was using to pay its soldiers, and the value of the notes began to deteriorate. This immediate threat spu...
1862 Apr 16 Lincoln Signs The Emancipation Act
On April 16, 1862, President Lincoln signed an act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, an important step in the long road toward full emancipation and enfranchisement for Afri...
1862 May 15 Lincoln Establishes the Department of Agriculture
On May 15, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln established the independent Department of Agriculture to be headed by a Commissioner without Cabinet status.[1] Lincoln called it the "people's ...
1862 May 20 Abraham Lincoln Signs the Homestead Act
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. The act provided settlers with 160 acres of surveyed public land after payment of a filing fee and five years of conti...
1862 Jul 1 The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 is Signed into Law
The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 (12 Statutes at Large, 489), as enacted by the United States Congress, was approved and signed into law by the President, Abraham Lincoln, on July 1, 1862....
1862 Jul 2 Reconfigured Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act Signed into Law
For fifteen years prior to the first introduction of the bill in 1857, there was a political movement calling for the creation of agriculture colleges. The movement was led by Professor J...
1862 Sep 22 Abraham Lincoln Issues First Order of Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. The first one, issued September 22, 1862, d...
1862 Nov 2 Mary Todd Lincoln Corresponds With Her Husband
Mary Todd Lincoln corresponded with her husband on November 2, 1862, advising him of popular sentiment against the cautious commanding of general of the Army of the Potomac George B. McCl...
1863 Jan 1 Abraham Lincoln Presents Final Draft of the Emancipation Proclamation
In the Second Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln also formally recognised the right of black men to enlist in the army, and shortly afterwards the first all-black division, the 54th Massa...
1863 Mar 4 Lincoln Signs An Act Creating The Idaho Territory
On March 4, 1863, President Lincoln signed an act creating Idaho Territory. (While the bill was passed on March 3, the enrolled bill was not signed by the speaker of the House and the pre...
1863 Nov 19 Abraham Lincoln Delivers The Gettysburg Address
On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a short speech at the close of ceremonies dedicating the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Requested to offer a ...
1863 Dec 8 Abraham Lincoln Issues Amnesty Proclamation
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, excep...
1863 Dec 8 Lincoln Attempts Reconstruction with the Ten Percent Plan
December 8: President Lincoln announces the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. It offers pardon and restoration of property -- except slaves -- to Confederates who swear allegian...
1864 Jun 30 Abraham Lincoln Signs The Yosemite Valley Grant Act
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Valley Grant Act, Senate Bill 203, on June 30, 1864. The legislation gave California the Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Big Tree Gro...