February 12, 1809 – The 16th President of the U. S., Abraham Lincoln, is born in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. By the time he was a young man his family had relocated to Illinois where he became a self-taught lawyer, then served in both the state General Assembly and U. S. Congress. He became President in 1861, guided the Union through the Civil War, and abolished slavery. He was assassinated just a few days after Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox.
February 14, 1818 – African-American abolitionist, lecturer, and editor, Frederick Douglass, who was also an escaped slave, is born in Talbot County, Maryland.
February 15, 1809 - Inventor and industrialist Cyrus McCormick is born in Rockbridge County, Virginia. He invents a horse-drawn mechanical reaper contributing to development and cultivation of vast areas of the American Great Plains. His reaper forms the basis of International Harvester Corporation.
February 15, 1820 – Pioneering women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony is born in Adams, Massachusetts.