The LuLac Edition #2877, April 14th, 2015

LINCOLN’S DEATH @ 150

A copy of a 1865 lithographic print by Currier & Ives provided by the U.S. Library of Congress shows John Wilkes Booth shooting U.S. President Abraham Lincoln as he sits in the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington April 14, 1865. (Photo: NBC News).

150 years ago this evening, the 16th President of the United States was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre when he was watching a play “Our American Cousin” AS a school child we learned that April 14th was a Good Friday and that Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth. Like the assassination of President Kennedy some 98 years later, there have been numerous conspiracy theories about the day.
Ironically news coverage was not like it is today even if you take away our electricity and devices. NBC Reports that the shooting didn’t even make it until the second paragraph.
WASHINGTON, APRIL 14 — President Lincoln and wife visited Ford's Theatre this evening for the purpose of witnessing the performance of 'The American Cousin.' It was announced in the papers that Gen. Grant would also be present, but that gentleman took the late train of cars for New Jersey.
The theatre was densely crowded, and everybody seemed delighted with the scene before them. During the third act and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggested nothing serious until a man rushed to the front of the President's box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, exclaiming, 'Sic semper tyrannis,' and immediately leaped from the box, which was in the second tier, to the stage beneath, and ran across to the opposite side, made his escape amid the bewilderment of the audience from the rear of the theatre, and mounted a horse and fled.
The groans of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet rushing towards the stage, many exclaiming, 'Hang him, hang him!' The excitement was of the wildest possible description...(NBC News)
It was up to the New York Times to issue this pithy report:
This evening at about 9:30 P.M., at Ford's Theatre, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris, and Major Rathburn, was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the President. (NBC News).
Lincoln died the next morning and became a national martyr and symbol all rolled into one. It was 150 years ago this evening, almost to the minute that the country changed. Lincoln was the first but certainly not the last President to be killed by a bullet in office.

Gary Moore interviewed the last surviving eyewitness to the Lincoln assassination.