U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln dies the following day.

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was one of the most shocking events in American history. On the evening of April 14, 1865, just days after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, President Lincoln attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. During the play, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head with a pistol. Booth then leaped onto the stage and escaped, famously shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis,” which means “thus always to tyrants.”

After the shooting, Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where doctors worked through the night to save him. Despite their efforts, he died the following morning on April 15, 1865. His death came at a critical moment in American history, as the Civil War was coming to an end and the nation was preparing for Reconstruction. Lincoln’s assassination made him the first U.S. president to be murdered, and the news plunged the country into deep mourning. Citizens across the nation grieved the loss of the leader who had preserved the Union and helped bring an end to slavery.

The assassination was part of a larger conspiracy organized by Booth and several accomplices. Their plan included attacks on Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward on the same night. While Seward was badly injured, Johnson was unharmed because his assigned attacker lost his nerve. Booth was tracked down by Union soldiers and killed less than two weeks later. The event had lasting consequences for the United States, as it altered the course of Reconstruction and left the nation without one of its most influential leaders during a fragile period of recovery and change.