Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth leans forward to shoot President Abraham Lincoln as he watches a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C, in 1865.
Abraham Lincoln was one of the most beloved Presidents in US history. He saw the country through some of its most divided moments, carrying it through the Civil War and bringing an end to slavery in the nation once and for all. Unfortunately, he was not loved by all, and one fateful afternoon on April 14, 1865, as he was watching a play at the famous Ford’s Theater in Washington DC, an ex-confederate named John Wilkes Booth snuck up behind him and shot him in the back of the head at point blank range.
The nation was shocked and angered, triggering all-out violence toward those supportive of Booth’s actions. The theater was forcibly closed, and the event did nothing to help heal the divide that had persisted for so long between the North and the South.