The Scientific American magazine reported that deaths aboard American steamboats totaled 487 in the first eleven months of 1860.  The journal noted that fatalities from explosions aboard steamboats, numbering 93 so far, was at its lowest number since the new system of steamboat inspections had been instituted.  Most deaths were caused in collisions, 308 so far, with fire aboard claiming 41 lives.  (By John Osborne)   

Abraham Lincoln voted at the Sangamon County Court House in Springfield, Illinois in mid-afternoon, modestly cutting his own name from the ballot. That evening he went to the local telegraph office and waited for reports on election returns from across the country. “Those who saw [Lincoln] at the time,” as the New York Times observed, “say it would have been impossible for a bystander to tell that that tall, lean, wiry, good-natured, easy-going gentleman…was the choice of the people to fill the most important office in the nation.” (By Don Sailer)

Since the election, Secretary of War John Buchanan Floyd, a Virginian, had fallen under suspicion over his loyalties, especially concerning arms shipments to Southern states.  He was also under a cloud over questionable involvements with defense contractors, including embezzlement.  When Buchanan refused to evacuate Fort Sumter, Floyd submitted his resignation.  Swiftly, this was accepted, Floyd's last shipment of heavy guns south cancelled, and Postmaster-General Joseph Holt appointed in his place.  (By John Osborne)