Assassination
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, one of the last major events in the Civil War, took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when the President was shot while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre with his wife and two guests. Lincoln died early the next morning.
Lincoln's assassin, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, had also plotted with fellow conspirators, Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt to kill William H. Seward (then Secretary of State) and Vice-President Andrew Johnson respectively. Booth hoped to create chaos and overthrow the Federal government by assassinating Lincoln, Seward, and Johnson. Although Booth succeeded in killing Lincoln, the larger plot failed. Seward was attacked, but recovered from his wounds, and Johnson's would-be assassin fled Washington upon losing his nerve.
Read more about this topic: Presidency Of Abraham Lincoln