This Day In History

February 12th 1915: Cornerstone of the Lincoln memorial laid

On this day in 1915 in Washington DC, the cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid, a year after the official groundbreaking ceremony. There had been many attempts by Congress to build a monument to the 16th President Abraham Lincoln, and in 1910 a bill passed the Senate. On February 12th 1915, the 106th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, a dedication ceremony took place and the cornerstone was laid. The building was completed in 1922, featuring a statue of Lincoln and inscriptions of his famous Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address.  The Memorial is now an iconic tribute to one of America’s greatest Presidents, and was the site of numerous speeches, such as Martin Luther King’s famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.
The epitaph above the statue of Lincoln reads:

“IN THIS TEMPLE
AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION
THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
IS ENSHRINED FOREVER”