lincoln's assassination
On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, was the first American president to be assassinated. He was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth in the Presidential Box of Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C while watching the comedy Our American Cousin. In addition, Booth simultaneously managed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward that evening. Booth was a Maryland native, born in 1838, who remained in the North during the Civil War despite his Confederate concerns. As the conflict entered its final stages, he and several associates hatched a plot to kidnap the president and take him to Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, Lincoln failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six partners waited. After his second successful attempt within Ford's Theater, the search for John Wilkes Booth was one of the largest manhunts in history, with 10,000 federal troops, detectives, and policemen tracking him down.
simultaneously managed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward that evening. Booth was a Maryland native, born in 1838, who remained in the North during the Civil War despite his Confederate concerns. As the conflict entered its final stages, he and several associates hatched a plot to kidnap the president and take him to Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, Lincoln failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six partners waited. After his second successful attempt within Ford's Theater, the search for John Wilkes Booth was one of the largest manhunts in history, with 10,000 federal troops, detectives, and policemen tracking him down. |