03 February,2009 12:11 PM IST | | Agencies
US President Barack Obama will travel to Springfield, in the US state of Illinois, this month to pay tribute to his political hero Abraham Lincoln, on the 200th anniversary of the assassinated US president's birth.
Obama, who has made no secret of his reverence for Lincoln, the president who committed his country to abolish slavery, launched his own journey to the White House in early 2007 in Springfield.
Like Lincoln, Obama was a lawyer and former state lawmaker in Illinois, and repeatedly invoked the former president's memory and rhetoric during his election campaign.
"President Obama will travel to Springfield on Thursday to attend the commemoration of Lincoln's 200th birthday," said White House press spokesman Robert Gibbs.
The visit will likely be Obama's first official trip out of the Washington area by Air Force One since becoming president last month.
