Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United
States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the
first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only
40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three
other candidates: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern
Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois.

On November 5, 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected
for an unprecedented third term as president of the United States.

George Washington (left) lays the cornerstone of the White House.

The cornerstone was laid for a presidential residence in the newly
designated capital city of Washington, D.C. In 1800, President
John Adams became the first president to reside in the executive
mansion, which soon became known as the “White House” because
its white-gray Virginia freestone contrasted strikingly with the red
brick of nearby buildings.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

1975

On October 3, 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Union Army
victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announced that
the nation will celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on
November 26, 1863.

The speech, which was actually written by Secretary of State
William Seward, declared that the fourth Thursday of every
November thereafter would be considered an official U.S. holiday
of Thanksgiving.