Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, (1809-65). US statesman; 16th president of the US. Born in a log cabin in Kentucky, he was entirely self-educated. After working as a lawyer, he sat in Congress and later joined the new Republican party (1856). In 1860 he was elected president on a anti-slavery ticket. His term of office was occupied by the civil war against the Southern slave states that had withdrawn from the Union following his 266 election. Just five days after the Union victory, he was shot at Ford’s Theatre, Washington DC, by the little-known actor John Wilkes Booth, who wished to avenge the defeat of the South. Lincoln died in hospital the next day and was subsequently regarded as both a martyr and a hero.
