TIMELINE (here's what I know...  Keep in mind that I'm Canadian so try not to be too critical of the short list *grin*):

• February 12, 1809:  Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky 
• October 5, 1818:  Lincoln's mother dies
• married Mary Todd and had 4 sons
• 1860 elected President (Republican)
• January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy
• Lincoln dedicates the military cemetery at Gettysburg: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
• 1864, Lincoln re-elected
• Second Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C.: 

  "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds.... "

• Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor.

POETRY CORNER (thanks to Carol for this contribution!):

Nancy Hanks

If Nancy Hanks
Came back as a ghost,
Seeking news
Of what she loved most,
She'd ask first
"Where's my son?
What's happened to Abe?
What's he done?"

"Poor little Abe,
Left all alone.
Except for Tom,
Who's a rolling stone;
He was only nine,
The year I died.
I remember still
How hard he cried."

"Scraping along
In a little shack,
With hardly a shirt
To cover his back,
And a prairie wind
To blow him down,
Or pinching times
If he went to town."

"You wouldn't know
About my son?
Did he grow tall?
Did he have fun?
Did he learn to read?
Did he get to town?
Do you know his name?
Did he get on?"

-By Rosemary Benet 

A Reply to Nancy Hanks

Yes, Nancy Hanks,
The news we will tell
Of your Abe
Whom you loved so well.
You asked first,
"Where's my son?"
He lives in the heart
Of everyone.

- By Julius Silberger