10 Incredible What-Ifs That Could Have Changed The Course Of History

7. ...Lincoln Had Been Murdered On Route To His Inauguration?

'The Great Emancipator', 'Honest Abe', 'The Liberator' - three nicknames which the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln would never had been given had he been assassinated before he ever assumed the highest office in the land.

Never far from an assassination attempt - he received more than 10,000 death threats during his four years as President - it was the Baltimore Plot of February 1861 that came the closest to killing Lincoln before he ever resided in the White House. The Republican President-Elect was en route to his inauguration - in the immediate aftermath of the Southern states' declaration that they would secede from the Union and form the Confederacy - when a plot was discovered that suggested conspirators were intending to stage a riot as Lincoln's train passed through the city before assassinating him.

Having learned of the plot, Lincoln's travel route was altered at the last minute so that he was secretly transported to Washington, D.C. via several different trains. Lincoln was finally inaugurated on 4th March, 1861 whilst being protected by a standing army in order to prevent him being murdered.

Obviously, Lincoln was eventually assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while he was attending the theatre on 15th April, 1865, but had he been killed while President-Elect then it is extremely likely that the US Civil War would have had a very different outcome - and the emancipation of slaves in America may not have happened until a long time later than it did. Lincoln's four years in office are arguably the most important ever served by a US President as a result.