Abraham Lincoln: five facts

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in 1865. This week sees the cinema release of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which sees Lincoln on the hunt for vampires in the US.

Lincoln's vampire-hunting skills may be fictional, but...

... he was the tallest American president to date, standing at 6ft 4". Among his presidential rivals in height are Lyndon Baines Johnson (6ft 3") and Thomas Jefferson (6ft 2½"). Current president Barack Obama is 6ft 1".

... he is the only president to have a patent. The patent was for a Lincoln-devised device for freeing ships that had run aground in shallow water. Lincoln received the patent (number 6469) in 1849.

... his eventual assassin wasn't unknown to him. Lincoln watched John Wilkes Booth  perform in The Marble Heart at Ford's Theatre in November 1863.

... his coffin has been moved 17 times and opened five times. What's more, in 1876, grave robbers tried to steal his remains.

... he was the first president to receive a transcontinental telegraph message. The message was wired to the president in Washington by California's chief justice, Stephen J Field on 24 October 1861. It congratulated Lincoln on the transcontinental telegraph's completion that day.

For more historical facts, make sure you check out our weekly quiz every Friday at www.historyextra.com/quiz