President Lincoln Shot!
1865

President Abraham Lincoln was shot this day in 1865, as he and his wife viewed the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington. The killer was, ironically, actor and southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, presumably upset over the recent (April 9th) defeat of the Confederacy.

Booth was tracked down by federal troops and shot in a barn, despite orders to take him alive; four other conspirators were tried and hanged. A doctor, Samuel Mudd, who innocently treated the ankle Booth had broken jumping from the President's theater booth, was sentenced to prison. Since that time "your name is mud" has become a familiar saying, unfair as it seems under the circumstances.

President Lincoln died the next day without regaining consciousness. His was the first assassination of a U. S. President.

First American Anti-Slavery Society
1775

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Webster Publishes His Dictionary
1828

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RMS Titanic Strikes Iceberg
1912

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