Well, today is the big day for all us football fans and all the American history buffs because today is the 214th birthday of our beloved 16th president Abraham Lincoln, born on this day in 1809 in Kentucky, but he would forever make Illinois his adopted home state (he’s buried at his tomb down in Springfield), where he has been laying to rest since that tragic Friday evening on Easter weekend, April 14th,1865 (he would pass on the next day on the 15th), at Ford’s Theatre in Washington while viewing the play Our American Cousin, when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer who was a member of the famed Booth acting family. Not to go too much into the history of the tragedy, I just wanted to recognize the birth of one of our greatest leaders who not only won a bloody civil war and brought a nation back together, but ended the institution of slavery in America that was practiced for over 200 years before 1865.
We celebrate the man, the myth, the legend and the spirit of Mr. Lincoln on his birhday in America, but there’s no bigger celebration that is held than in Springfield, Illinois where he practiced law, started his political career and went from serving just one term in the U. S. House and later on winning the White House in 1860 in a four-man race. As we all celebrate his successes, we know he had failures but that’s something I don’t intend to get into. So I say Happy 214th Birthday to you Mr. Lincoln and may God bless you on the Heavenly anniversary of your birth.
The second event that is occuring today is Super Bowl VII, the annual football championship game between the winners of two different divisions, the NFC and the AFC, a game that has been played since its inception in 1966 (the FIRST Super Bowl started in 1967, yet sometimes this confuses people on when the Super Bowl ACTUALLY started). Not every team in the NFL has been to the “Big Game”, which was the name thought of before the name Super Bowl was used so much it actually stuck and has been called that ever since. My home team went to the Super Bowl back in 1986 and won it against the New England Patriots (y’all should know the answer to that question, I just decided not to say who it was). I love football as much as I love history and I enjoy both with a great passion and do plan on not only watching documentaries on Lincoln, but watching the game as well. Who I’m rooting for I’m still undecided, but that’s all right, I’m sure the game’s gonna be great, no matter who wins!
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