Low rode the moon that night

1857 Abraham Lincoln's night of the "moon riding low"

When he was a lawyer, Abraham Lincoln defended a man, one William Armstrong, who had been charged with murder.

The prosecutor said that Lincoln's client had murdered a man on August 28, 1857 in the "light of the moon". Holding up the 1857 edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac for the jury to see, Lincoln pointed out that on the night in question the "moon was riding low". Thus was Armstrong acquitted of all charges in a real-life scenario that has had its echo in countless crime fictions since then.

Tagged: history, usa, moon, almanacs