Lincoln assassination

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln occurred on April 14, 1865, when John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer and actor, shot him in Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Booth aimed to strike a blow against the Union leadership by killing Lincoln, who had recently led the country through the Civil War and was advocating for the abolition of slavery. Lincoln was attending a play and was shot in the head; he died the next day on April 15. The event shocked the nation, and Booth was hunted down and killed later that year.