Did You Know; Abraham Lincoln Edition

Did you Know?

Abraham Lincoln grew a beard in late 1860 after getting advice from an 11-year-old New York girl named Grace Bedell, who wrote, "You would look a great deal better, for your face is so thin." After Lincoln became the first bearded U.S. president, the Illustrated News of New York made a bogus claim that the president had used a hair-growing product called Bellingham's Stimulating Onguent, and "with this extraordinary paste he soon started the manly adornment." Bellingham's just happened to be an Illustrated News Advertiser.

Source: Almost History: Close Calls, Plan B's and Twists of Fate in America's Past" by Roger Bruns