Abe Lincoln Meets the Internet

By Soyoung Kwak in Miscellaneous on Aug 22, 2010 4:30PM

Have you ever wondered what the 16th President of the United States was doing on your birthday, 150 years ago? Finally, fans of Abraham Lincoln will be able to figure out what the famous president did throughout his life without having to dig through dusty historical archives. Thanks to a new searchable online database run by lovable nerds at UIUC, the database is based on a book that was published in cooperation by the Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission and by the Abraham Lincoln Association, titled Lincoln Day-by-Day: A Chronology.

The website, aptly named the Lincoln Log, will allow those who are curious about Lincoln's day-to-day activities to type in a date and find out what Honest Abe was up to 150 years ago. Apparently, Abe Lincoln "[declined an] invitation to a horse show at Springfield, Massachusetts" on this day in 1860. Although the website doesn't offer juicy details about Lincoln's personal life or tell us what the late president ate for dinner, the website (which launched this weekend) does store interesting factual information about Lincoln's everyday life that could come useful during a high-stakes Trivial Pursuit game.