1809-1865
1809
- February 12 -- Lincoln born in Hardin County, Kentucky.
1816
- Lincoln and family move to Spencer County, Indiana.
1818
- Lincoln's mother dies.
1819
- Lincoln's father remarries.
1830
- March 15 -- The Lincolns arrive in Decatur, Illinois.
1831
- March-July -- Lincoln helps to build and then pilot a flatboat.
1832
- March 9 -- Lincoln announces candidacy for legislature.
- April-July -- Lincoln serves in several military companies.
- August 6 -- Lincoln eighth of thirteen candidates in election.
1833
- May 7 -- President Jackson appoints Lincoln as postmaster of New Salem.
1834
- August 4 -- Lincoln elected to Ilinois General Assembly.
1837
- March 1 -- Lincoln admitted to the bar.
1842
- November 4 -- Lincoln marries Mary Todd.
1846
- August 3 -- Lincoln elected to the Thirtieth Congress.
1847
- October 25 -- Lincoln leaves for Washington with wife and two sons.
1849
- September 27 -- Lincoln declines governorship of Oregon Territory.
1855
- February 8 -- Lincoln loses U.S. Senate election.
1858
- August 21 - October 15 -- The Lincoln-Douglas debates.
- November 2 -- Douglas wins election to Senate despite Lincoln's majority.
1860
- November 6 -- Lincoln becomes first Republican elected President.
1861
- March 4 -- Lincoln inaugurated as Sixteenth President of the United States.
- April 12 -- Fort Sumter attacked.
- July 22 -- Congress gives Lincoln war powers.
1863
- January 1 -- Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
1864
- March 12 -- Lincoln appoints Grant as commander-in-chief of the armies.
- November 8 -- Lincoln wins re-election.
1865
- February 1 -- Lincoln approves Thirteenth Amendment.
- March 4 -- Lincoln delivers Second Inaugural Address.
- April 14 -- Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre.
- April 15 -- 7:22am Lincoln dies.
- April 21 - May 3 -- Lincoln's body is transported by train to Springfield, Illinois.