Happy 200th birthday Mr. President

I thought these photos were so interesting, and I wanted to give a belated shout out to Abraham Lincoln on his 200th birthday! It's been wonderful to read more about his life in the last few weeks and to celebrate his amazing accomplishments as the greatest President this country has even known. Ever since my dad worked for the Lincoln National Life Insurance company, I've had a keen interest in Abe. My dad had some keepsake Lincoln items that I loved to look at. He had some plaster casts of Lincoln's hands that I remember well (where did those end up anyway??) They were huge hands that accomplished much good in his life. Happy 200th Birthday Mr. Lincoln!!

Here is some Lincoln trivia I found interesting:

• When Lincoln was inaugurated, there were five living ex-presidents: Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan.
• Lincoln was the first president to have a beard, is the only one to have had a beard and no mustache.
• Lincoln was the first member of the Republican Party to be elected president. However, he was re-elected on the National Union ticket. Following Lincoln, Republicans were the dominant party from 1869 to 1885.
• Lincoln taught himself law and was admitted to the bar in 1837, when he moved to Springfield, Ill. During his 23-year law career, he was involved in more than 5,000 cases in Illinois. He and his partner appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court more than 400 times.
• Lincoln made good money as a lawyer before becoming president. By 1858, he was earning about $5,000 a year. In terms of dollars his biggest case dealt with ownership of land at the mouth of the Chicago River. Sued for more than $600,000, the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad hired Lincoln. The case eventually went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but his clients ended up paying only half the original amount.
• When moving to Washington, the Lincolns decided it would be too expensive to move their belongings, so they held one of the first "garage sales" of their day. A bill of sale in Lincoln's handwriting shows that a druggist named S.H. Melvin paid $82.25 for "6 chairs, 1 spring mattress, 1 wardrobe, 1 whatnot, 1 stand, 91?2 yards of stair carpet and 4 comforters."
• When Lincoln was shot, the only money in his pocket was a $5 Confederate note.
• Lincoln's assassination stunned the nation. As the first president to lie in state, his body was viewed by tens of thousands of mourners.
• At 6 foot 4 inches, Lincoln was our tallest president.
• When it came to his likeness, Lincoln preferred photographs to paintings. That may have been in part due to the fact there was an exceptional photographer named Matthew Brady in Washington at the time. In fact, Lincoln credited an early photograph taken by Brady for helping him get elected. In those photographs, Lincoln never smiled — so no one knows what his teeth looked like.
• Among other things, Lincoln has had an automobile, a ballistic missile submarine, an aircraft carrier and an American faction of the International Brigades (during the Spanish Civil War) named after him.

Here's a fun quiz to take to test your knowledge of our 16th President.