On November 6th 1860 the 16th President of the United States was elected, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln beat his Democrat, Southern Democrat and Constitutional Union Party (have you heard of that one?) rivals, primarily due to votes in the Northern and Western states of the Union. The Southern Democrat, Breckenridge, took the Southern states (as well as a couple of Northern).

Lincoln was the first President from the Republican party (interesting how the Republicans are now Southern and the Democrats Northern, reversing the original split). Problems arose with the division in the votes, eventually leading to the American Civil War, when many of the Southern states attempted to secede from the Union.

Image: Alexander Gardner [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Abraham_Lincoln_O-55%2C_1861-crop.jpg/250px-Abraham_Lincoln_O-55%2C_1861-crop.jpg)