Route 66 - Springfield Illinois

You've made it to Springfield, Richard, capital of Illinois and sixth most populated town in the state. Like Chicago, Springfield's early history is intertwined with the fortunes of travelling fur trappers and traders. By the time a young Abraham Lincoln moved here in 1837, Springfield was an established town.

Lincoln met his wife, Mary, in Springfield, and practised law there for 24 years, also taking a healthy interest in politics - a good pursuit for a future president. He was elected to office in November 1860, although was singularly unpopular in slave states; in fact, he only won two of 996 counties in the South that year.

A two-term president, Lincoln can also be credited with founding Thanksgiving as a national holiday in America. Before, it had been a small holiday in New England, but he fixed it as the final Thursday in November; something we can be certain retail employers don't thank him for today, with Black Friday falling the following day.

Although buried in Springfield, Lincoln is perhaps best known for being murdered in a theatre. John Wilkes Booth, his assassin, was a well-known actor and a vocal racist; Lincoln promoting equal voting rights for freed slaves didn't go down well, and when watching Our American Cousin in Ford's Theatre in April 1865, he was shot in the back of the head at point blank range. African-Americans, whose rights Lincoln championed, openly wept at their president's death.

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