Abraham Lincoln

Known as Honest Abe, Abraham Lincoln was the tallest US President (standing at 6'4") and the 16th US President.
Born in the state of Kentucky, Abraham had a variety of jobs as a young adult before teaching himself law and opened a law practice. It was at that time that he earned the nickname Honest Abe.

He was 52 when he became the 16th president of the United States of America, there was trouble brewing as the nation debated whether slavery should be abolished or not as America's former colonial power Britain had previously abolished slavery in 1807, two years before Abe was born. Slavery was when people of colour, primarily those of African descent were taken from their home country and put into force labour work in cotton fields and rich white people's homes and if they didn't do their job right, they were flogged. It wasn't nice.
As a result, 11 states joined a different and controversial union called the Confederate States of America (simply called the Confederacy). As a result, Abraham Lincoln spent most of his presidency trying to keep the country together.
A civil war broke out and something had to be done to get the confederacy to reunite with the Union. After several talks, Abe Lincoln came down to one solution, abolish slavery to weaken the south. Even though he had different views as to what the decision that would change America would have you believe, it had to be done. The abolition of slavery was a slow process between the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment but slaves in the Confederacy were the first to be freed.

Not only did Abe Lincoln help free the slaves, he also issued a proclamation that separated the state of Virginia into Virginia and West Virginia (yes, that West Virginia that had a song about it and its country roads). He supported the development of a transcontinental railway and established the Department of Agriculture in the US. One of the last acts of his presidency was creating the Secret Service which protects the US President, vice president and investigates into crimes against the financial infrastructure of the US. Sadly, it would only start operating after his untimely death that came shortly after the end of the American Civil War. On 14 April 1865, Abe and his wife Mary were watching a play in Washington DC when actor John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at the back of the head before fleeing until he was caught a fortnight later. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln because Booth was pro slavery and was upset at how the criminalizing and slow abolition of slavery weakened the Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln succumbed to his wound a day later, becoming the first US President to be assassinated and the 3rd US President to die in office. Abe's mother Nancy Hanks is an ancestor of actor Tom Hanks who you may know as Woody from the Toy Story films.