Which US President was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth?
John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was the American actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. He was a member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and a well-known actor in his own right. He was also a Confederate sympathizer, vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln and strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery in the United States. Booth and a group of co-conspirators originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln but later planned to kill him, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary
John Wilkes Booth occupants. John Wilkes Booth slipped into Lincoln's box that evening at around 10p.m. as the play progressed and shot the President in the back of the head with a .41 caliber Deringer. Booth's escape was almost thwarted by Major Henry Rathbone, who was present in the presidential box with Mary Todd Lincoln. Booth stabbed Rathbone when the startled officer lunged at him. Rathbone's fiancée Clara Harris was also present in the box but was unhurt. Booth then jumped from the president's box to the stage, where he raised his knife and shouted ""Sic semper tyrannis"" (Latin for "Thus always to