We are the 14th of April 1865 in the city of Washington DC, United States.
This day is tragic for the president Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States since 1861.
5 days before his death, he signed the end of the Secession War between the Yankees and the Confederates.
But let’s come back on this tragic day of the 14th.
The evening of this night, Lincoln and his wife went to see a play in the Ford’s Theater.
They wanted to see a famous actress in the play “ Our American Cousin”.
At first, the Lincolns wanted to go to this theater with the General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia but they declined in the afternoon.
They were replaced by the Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris.
The assassination :
John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor.
He knew very well the theater.
He opened the door of the presidential box and killed the president with a bullet.
After he killed, Lincoln, he jumped in the foreground and said “Sic Semper Tyrannis” (the motto of the state of Virginia).
The president died the next day near the theater. In the meantime, John Wilkes Booth was wanted for the murder.
Few days later he was probably killed by soldiers in the Garret’s Farm.
(We are not sure if Booth died in the farm or if he escaped from the farm).
Booth killed the president because he didn’t agree with his ideas.
Lincoln was the first president of The United States who was assassinated.