What does Louisiana mean? Louisiana (La Louisianne) was named by explorer RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier in the mid 1600's to honor King Louis XIV of France. President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory from Napoleon in 1803 (the original Louisiana territory is now divided between 13 states). Louisiana.
Reagan started it. In his 1982 State of the Union speech, Reagan did something new. Almost 200 years after George Washington gave the first annual message from the President to Congress, Reaganâs first State of the Union started a tradition by inviting Lenny Skutnik to attend.
Abraham Lincoln became the United States' 16th President in 1861, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863.incoln thought secession illegal, and was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the Union. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, he called on the states for 75,000 volunteers. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy but four remained within the Union.