Born: 12 February 1809 · Died: 15 April 1865 · Age at death: 56
How old was Abraham Lincoln when he died?
Abraham Lincoln died aged 56. He was born on 12 February 1809 and died on 15 April 1865.
16th US President who led the Union through the Civil War, issued the Emancipation Proclamation and gave the Gettysburg Address
Did you know?He was a highly successful wrestler in his youth and was eventually inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Quick facts
Date of birth12 February 1809
Date of death15 April 1865
Age at death56
Cause of deathShot to the head
NationalityAmerican
BirthplaceHodgenville, Kentucky, USA
Occupationpolitician, lawyer
Editor's Take:
Abraham Lincoln is the rare leader whose reputation has grown with every generation of historians who study him. A self-taught frontier lawyer with barely a year of formal schooling, he wrote some of the most precise and moving prose in the English language, including a Gettysburg Address of just 272 words. He held the Union together through the bloodiest war in American history while steering the country, step by careful step, towards the end of slavery. His genius lay in timing: he moved public opinion only as fast as it could follow, and then a little further. That he was assassinated days after victory gives his story the shape of a tragedy, and the lasting sense of a nation's unfinished business.
Key Milestones
1834: Elected to the Illinois legislature
1858: Debates Stephen Douglas in the Senate race
1860: Elected 16th President
1863: Issues the Emancipation Proclamation
1863: Delivers the Gettysburg Address
1865: Assassinated days after the Confederate surrender
16th President of the United States who led the nation through the Civil War and abolished slavery.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
— Abraham Lincoln, 1858 speech
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February 12. He was born on February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky, USA.
How old was Abraham Lincoln when he died?
Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, aged 56.
Who shares a birthday with Abraham Lincoln?
Famous people who share Abraham Lincoln's February 12 birthday include Charles Darwin, Pran, Christina Ricci, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna Pavlova.
