EVENTS OF APRIL 14, 1865
John Wilkes Booth, a popular 26-year-old actor who was also a Confederate sympathizer and white supremacist, had been plotting for months to abduct Lincoln and give the Confederacy another chance. But three days earlier, hearing the president talk of his plans to bring the nation together—in particular, Lincoln’s plans to grant some African-American men the right to vote—Booth’s plans turned murderous.