Video: 'Worst 5 Vice Presidents in American History' (Breckinridge at 2:43)

(Tuesday, January 16, 1821) — John C. Breckinridge, the 14th and youngest-ever vice president of the United States, who served during the administration of President James Buchanan (1857–1861), was born today at Thorn Hill, his family’s estate near Lexington, Kentucky.

Breckinridge, a Democrat who finished second to Abraham Lincoln in the Electoral College during the presidential election of 1860, served in the U.S. Senate during the outbreak of the American Civil War, but was expelled after joining the Confederate Army.

He was appointed Confederate secretary of war in 1865.