(METRO) – As we celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday this week, we acknowledge that Lincoln is among the most revered figures in American history. Born in Kentucky on February 12, 1809, Lincoln served as the sixteenth president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln was president during the American Civil War, when he led the Union to victory over the Confederacy, an outcome which resulted in the end of slavery in the United States. Though Lincoln’s role during the American Civil War is well-known, there’s much more to the man dubbed “Honest Abe.”

· Abraham Lincoln was six-foot-four, and that size perhaps contributed to one of the more unique honors that was bestowed upon him, albeit posthumously. As a young man, Lincoln was known for his wrestling skills, and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame notes he suffered just a single recorded defeat in a dozen-year period. That skill and record is why the NWHOF enshrined him in 1992.

· The United States Secret Service performs many functions, but none is more widely recognized than the agency’s role in protecting American political leaders and their families. In a curious twist, the Secret Service was officially established by President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, just hours before he was fatally shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln fell into a coma after being shot and died the next morning.

· That Lincoln established an organization that would be tasked with protecting political leaders on the day he was assassinated was not the only odd coincidence to affect the president and his family. Though the precise timeline is uncertain, actor Edwin Booth saved Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, when the latter accidentally fell onto train tracks in Jersey City, New Jersey. Booth pulled the president’s son up by the coat collar before he could be crushed by a departing train. Despite his act of heroism, Edwin Booth has been overshadowed by his brother, John Wilkes Booth, a fellow actor and the man now remembered as Abraham Lincoln’s assassin.

· The Lincoln Bedroom is among the more notable rooms in the White House. However, unless he dozed off at his desk, Lincoln never actually slept in the room that bears his name. According to the White House Historical Association, Lincoln used the room as his office and Cabinet Room. In fact, the WHHA notes that the room did not even include the rosewood bed purchased by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln until it was renovated during the administration of Harry S. Truman in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

· Perhaps no individual in American history has inspired more written works than Abraham Lincoln. The exact figure is unknown, but the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum estimates that more than 18,000 books have been written about America’s sixteenth president.

As Americans celebrate Presidents’ Day and Lincoln’s birthday this February, consider these and many more interesting facts about President Abraham Lincoln.