【4/14 今日美史】刺杀林肯

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4/14

When

Where

Who

What

When：April 14, 1865

What：

President Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, at a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

Why

significant

The assassination came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army, effectively ending the  American Civil War.

In April, the Confederate armies were near collapse across the South. Learning that Lincoln was to attend a performance at Ford’s Theater on April 14, Booth masterminded the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. By murdering the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the U.S. government into disarray.

On the evening of April 14, Booth entered Lincoln’s private theater box unnoticed and shot the president with a single bullet in the back of his head. Lincoln died the next morning at age 56, and became the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Booth's conspirators seriously wounded Secretary of State Seward, but not Vice President Johnson.

Tags

President Abraham Lincoln, Civil War