President Lincoln was not the first person to be accorded the honor of lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

Henry Clay, speaker of the House of Representatives, was the first when he died in 1852.

President Lincoln was second, and 11 other presidents followed him, along with selected senators and military commanders, the unknown soldiers for four wars, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Pierre L ‘Enfant, who designed the layout for Washington, D.C.