President Abraham Lincoln assassinated

Depending on who you ask, John Wilkes Booth was either deranged madman acting without realizing the consequences, or a brilliant strategist who locked himself and his cohorts into their plan, ensuring they could not back down out of fear. Booth was a Southern sympathizer, who conceived he could help the Confederate cause by taking out the president of the United States. His original plan, to kidnap and ransom Lincoln in exchange for Confederate prisoners of war, was modified to assassinating him, along with the Vice President and the Secretary of State, effectively leaving the U.S. government leaderless.

On this day, April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth went through with his part of the plot, fatally shooting President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. As a famous actor, he had no trouble getting access to Lincoln’s balcony and used the laughter of the audience to muffle the sound of his shot.

His two co-conspirators charged with taking out the Vice President and the Secretary of State failed. Lewis Powell got close enough to Secretary of State William H. Seward but only wounded him slightly; and George Atzerodt lost his courage to take out Vice President Andrew Johnson and fled. As for Booth, a manhunt cornered him at a barn of a tobacco farmer in Virginia. Cavalry officers set fire to the barn, and shot Booth as he was trying to make a dash out.