On November 23, 1804, Franklin Pierce was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He pursued law and politics, serving in the state legislature, U.S. House, and Senate before the Mexican–American War. His wartime service boosted his visibility and helped him secure the Democratic presidential nomination in 1852. As the 14th president, he backed policies like the Kansas–Nebraska Act that inflamed sectional tensions over slavery. His administration is often criticized for failing to ease the divisions that led toward the Civil War. Pierce’s birth date figures in U.S. presidential timelines as part of the story of mid-nineteenth-century politics.
