Lincoln's birthday

Today is President Abraham Lincoln's birthday. You wouldn't know it from the local media. There was no mention of it in today's paper. He is probably the second most popular president, after George Washington, in our US History. I did find a couple of websites devoted to Lincoln that would be especially useful to your students for research. At the link to Celebrate! Holidays in the U.S.A. you can read the history behind the holiday. Lincoln's birthday was a federal holiday until 1971. On this site you can read the words to his famous "Gettysburg Address" spoken after that Civil War battle ended. Also, scroll down the page to read the words to the poem written by Walt Whitman in honor of Lincoln after his death, "Captain! my Captain!" Another site full of information about Lincoln is called the Abraham Lincoln Research Site. I especially like the link to a collection of quotes from Lincoln.