Civic Calendar: Remember Abraham Lincoln's birth on Feb. 12

The Forty-Ninth State Fellows of the UAA Honors College call the attention of the University community to the anniversary of the Feb. 12 birth of Abraham Lincoln, widely regarded as the most influential American ever and the greatest president.

Born in humble circumstances and largely self-taught, Lincoln began practicing law at age 32. He served four terms in the Illinois state house and one in the U.S. House of Representatives. Elected president in 1860, he saw the U.S. through its greatest crisis, the Civil War, freeing the slaves by executive order in 1862. Lincoln was convinced that should secession succeed, democracy would not.

He was assassinated on April 15, 1865, one month after delivering his second inaugural address.