Ford's Theatre - Lincoln Assassination Site

President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated here by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. Lincoln attended the performance of "Our American Cousin" with his wife Mary, Major Henry Rathbone, and his fiancée Clara Harris.

During the play, Booth snuck into the President's box and shot him from behind. Rathbone was stabbed while struggling with Booth, who would jump to the stage below and escaped outside to his horse. Booth was on the run for 12 days until being killed by a Union soldier at a farm in Port Royal, Virginia.

Lincoln was taken across the street to the Petersen house, where he died the next morning.