Abraham Lincoln, a self-taught lawyer, legislator and vocal opponent of slavery, was elected 16th president of the United States in November 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. He led the nation through the bloody conflict and declared all enslaved people free under the Emancipation Proclamation. He was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865.
On Feb. 20, 1962: Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Project Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft, which circled the globe three times