Timeless
“The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln”
October 10, 2016
April 14, 1865
Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln at Washington, D.C.’s Ford’s Theater during a performance of “Our American Cousin.” Booth times his attack to the delivery of the line, “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!” He hopes to use the audience’s laughter to cover the sound of the gun shot.
After shooting Lincoln, Booth struggles with and stabs Major Henry Rathbone. Booth jumps 12 feet from the box to the stage below where he is generally reported to have cried, “Sic semper tyrannis!” Many in the audience thought it was all a part of the play – until Mary Todd Lincoln started screaming.
Lincoln is carried across the street to the Petersen boarding house where he dies at 7:22 am the next morning. Booth flees the theater and is killed 12 days later at the Garrett farm in Caroline County, VA.
Continue reading “‘Timeless’: The present isn’t perfect” →
Like this:
Like Loading...
