Happy Birthday Ross and Lincoln!

Here's wishing a very special Happy Birthday to my son, Ross.

He shares the same birthday as Abraham Lincoln.I seriously thought about using Lincoln for his middle name, but his dad didn't appreciate that idea.

Abraham Lincoln
Born: 12 February 1809
Birthplace: Near Hodgenville, Kentucky
Died: 15 April 1865 (assassination by gunshot)

Best Known for: The Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.

He was born in a log cabin and grew up on the American frontier, educating himself by reading borrowed books. He split fence rails and clerked in a general store. He was also a lawyer before he became president. He married Mary Anne Todd in 1842. He served in the Illinois General Assembly for eight years and in the U.S. House of Representatives for one term (1847-49) before his election as the nation's first Republican president in 1860. He led the Union through the Civil War and freed Confederate slaves with the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. He delivered the Gettysburg Address, the most famous oration in American history, on 19 November 1863. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. Upon Lincoln's death, Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency. The Lincoln Memorial, with its famous statue of Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, was dedicated in Washington in 1922.

Lincoln is on the U.S. penny and the five dollar bill. In 1864 Lincoln named Salmon P. Chase to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Chase is on the ten thousand dollar bill. Lincoln was preceded by James Buchanan, the only president to remain a bachelor for life. Lincoln was the first president to be born outside the original thirteen states. He was the first president to wear a beard while in office. Lincoln's oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, was present at three assassinations: his father's, President Garfield's in 1881 and President McKinley's in 1901. A famous (and enormous) biography of Lincoln was written by 20th-century author Carl Sandburg.