Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States was born in February 1809, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He played in key role in passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery in America. Prior to his election as President in 1860, he had successful careers as a lawyer and politician in Illinois, serving several terms in the state legislature and one in the US House of Representatives. He also holds the distinction of being the only US President to receive a patent; in 1849, he designed a system for lifting riverboats off sandbars.
Lincoln won the 1860 election and was inaugurated as President in March of 1861. He set up a national banking system while he was President. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at the Ford Theatre in Washington D.C. He died the next day on April 15, 1865. On the day he was shot, Lincoln told his bodyguard that he had dreamt he would be assassinated.
