April 14

President Lincoln Shot at Ford's Theatre

John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln in the back of the head during a performance at Ford's Theatre, mortally wounding him. Booth leapt to the stage, breaking his leg, and escaped — only to be cornered and killed twelve days later.

Lincoln's assassination removed the one leader who might have implemented a lenient Reconstruction and led to a harsher, more chaotic postwar period that set back racial equality for a century.