Abraham Lincoln became the first American president assassinated in office. As part of a wider plot to cripple the United States government at this crucial moment, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln through the head from behind during a performance of "Our American Cousin" in Ford’s Theatre in the capital. Mortally wounded, Lincoln died a few hours later in a house across the street from the theater. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2008), 2: 816-817.
Thomas Goodrich, The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 95-103.
Thomas Goodrich, The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 95-103.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Crime/Disasters
