today.nukz.net: Almanac April 14 :: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close.

The assassination occurred five days after the commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln was the first American president to be successfully assassinated, though an unsuccessful attempt had been made on Andrew Jackson thirty years before in 1835. The assassination was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger conspiracy in a bid to revive the Confederate cause. Booth's co-conspirators were Lewis Powell and David Herold, who were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt who was to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. By simultaneously eliminating the top three in the line of succession in the Federal government, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to sever the continuity of the United States government. Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on the night of April 14, 1865. He died early the next morning. The rest of the conspirator's plot failed; Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt, Johnson's would-be assassin, lost his nerve and fled Washington.

Events

43 BC – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is wounded.
69 – Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne.
70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital, with four Roman legions.
966 – After his marriage to the Christian Dobrawa of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converts to Christianity, an event considered to be the founding of the Polish state.
1028 – Henry III, son of Conrad, is elected king of the Germans.
1205 – Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders.
1294 – Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.
1341 – Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V of Saluzzo.
1434 – The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid.
1471 – In England, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeat the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet; the Earl is killed and Edward IV resumes the throne.
1639 – Imperial forces are defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Chemnitz. The Swedish victory prolongs the Thirty Year's War and allows them to advance into Bohemia.
1699 – Khalsa: The Sikh Religion was formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints - by Guru Gobind Singh in Northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.
1715 – The Yamasee War begins in South Carolina.
1775 – The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
1816 – Bussa, a slave in British-ruled Barbados, leads a slave rebellion and is killed. For this, he is remembered as the first national hero of Barbados.
1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
1846 – The Donner Party of pioneers departs Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival.
1849 – Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Lajos Kossuth as its leader.
1860 – The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California.
1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth.
1865 – U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell.
1881 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight is fought in El Paso, Texas.
1890 – The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D.C.
1894 – The first ever commercial motion picture house opened in New York City using ten Kinetoscopes, a device for peep-show viewing of films.
1906 – The Azusa Street Revival opens and will launch Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
1909 – A massacre is organized by Ottoman Empire against Armenian population of Cilicia.
1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11:40pm. The ship sinks the following morning with the loss of 1,517 lives.
1927 – The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1931 – Spanish Cortes depose King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the 2nd Spanish Republic.
1931 – First edition of the Highway Code published in Great Britain.
1935 – "Black Sunday Storm", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl.
1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.
1940 – World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
1941 – World War II: The Ustashe, a Croatian far-right organization is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers after the Axis Operation 25 invasion. Rommel attacks Tobruk.
1944 – Bombay Explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 and causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.
1945 – Osijek, Croatia, is liberated from fascist occupation.
1956 – In Chicago, Illinois, videotape is first demonstrated.
1958 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days.
1967 – Gnassingbé Eyadéma overthrows President of Togo Nicolas Grunitzky and installs himself as the new president, a title he would hold for the next 38 years.
1969 – At the U.S. Academy Awards there is a tie for the Academy Award for Best Actress between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand.
1978 – 1978 Tbilisi Demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
1981 – STS-1 – The first operational space shuttle, Columbia (OV-102) completes its first test flight.
1986 – In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.
1986 – 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.
1988 – The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.
1988 – In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
1991 – The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President after its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
1994 – In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
1999 – NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees – Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed.
1999 – A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.
2002 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military.
2003 – The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
2003 – U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.
2005 – The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.
2007 – At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
2010 – Nearly 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai, China.

Births

1126 – Averroes Arab Spanish physician, philosopher and polymath (d. 1198)
1336 – Emperor Go-Kogon of Japan (d. 1374)
1572 – Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician (d. 1632)
1578 – King Philip III of Spain (d. 1621)
1629 – Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician (d. 1695)
1668 – Magnus Julius De la Gardie, Swedish General (d. 1741)
1709 – Charles Collé, French dramatist and songwriter (d. 1783)
1714 – Adam Gib, Scottish religious leader (d. 1788)
1738 – William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1809)
1741 – Emperor Momozono of Japan (d. 1762)
1773 – Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, French statesman (d. 1854)
1788 – David G. Burnet, interim president of the Republic of Texas (d. 1870)
1800 – John George Appold, fur dyer and engineer (d. 1865)
1814 – Dimitri Kipiani, Georgian politician and writer (d. 1887)
1818 – Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, queen of Hanover (d. 1909)
1827 – Augustus Pitt Rivers, English archaeologist (d. 1900)
1857 – Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, Youngest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Prince Consort (d. 1944)
1866 – Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher and companion (d. 1936)
1868 – Peter Behrens, German architect (d. 1940)
1870 – Victor Borisov-Musatov, Russian painter (d. 1905)
1870 – Syd Gregory, Australian cricketer (d. 1929)
1872 – Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Indian-born Islamic scholar and translator (d. 1953)
1881 – Husain Salaahuddin, Maldivian writer (d. 1948)
1882 – Moritz Schlick, Austrian philosopher, (d. 1936)
1886 – Ernst Robert Curtius, Alsatian philologist (d. 1956)
1886 – Árpád Tóth, Hungarian poet (d. 1928)
1889 – Arnold Joseph Toynbee, English historian (d. 1975)
1891 – B. R. Ambedkar, Maker of Indian Constitution, Indian Jurist (d. 1956)
1892 – Vere Gordon Childe, Australian philologist (d. 1957)
1897 – Claire Windsor, American actress (d. 1972)
1902 – Sylvio Mantha, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1974)
1903 – Henry Corbin, French philosopher and iranologist (d. 1978)
1904 – Sir John Gielgud, English actor (d. 2000)
1905 – Elizabeth Huckaby, American educator (d. 1999)
1907 – François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Haitian dictator (d. 1971)
1912 – Robert Doisneau, French photographer (d. 1994)
1913 – Jean Fournet, French conductor (d. 2008)
1916 – Don Willesee, Australian politician (d. 2003)
1917 – Marvin Miller, American labor activist
1917 – Valerie Hobson, British actress (d. 1998)
1918 – Mary Healy, American actress
1921 – Thomas Schelling, American economist, Nobel laureate
1923 – Roberto DeVicenzo, Argentine golfer
1924 – Shorty Rogers, American jazz musician (d. 1994)
1925 – Gene Ammons, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1974)
1925 – Abel Muzorewa, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (d. 2010)
1925 – Rod Steiger, American actor (d. 2002)
1926 – Frank Daniel, Czech-born writer, director and teacher (d. 1996)
1926 – Liz Renay, American actress (d. 2007)
1927 – Alan MacDiarmid, New Zealand chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 2007)
1927 – Dany Robin, French actress (d. 1995)
1928 – Ezra Fleischer, Romanian dissident, later Israeli writer (d. 2006)
1929 – Gerry Anderson, English television producer
1930 – René Desmaison, French mountaineer (d. 2007)
1930 – Bradford Dillman, American actor
1931 – Paul Masnick, Canadian ice hockey player
1932 – Bob Grant, English actor (d. 2003)
1932 – Loretta Lynn, American country musician/singer
1933 – Boris Kolar, Croatian animator
1933 – Boris Strugatsky, Russian author
1934 – Fredric Jameson, American philosopher, cultural theorist
1935 – Erich von Däniken, Swiss writer
1936 – Kenneth Mars, American actor (d. 2011)
1936 – Bobby Nichols, American professional golfer
1936 – Frank Serpico, American policeman
1941 – Julie Christie, British actress
1941 – Pete Rose, American baseball player
1942 – Valentin Lebedev, Russian cosmonaut
1942 – Björn Rosengren, Swedish politician
1944 – John Sergeant, British journalist
1945 – Ritchie Blackmore, English guitarist (Deep Purple)
1945 – Roger Frappier, Canadian producer, director, actor and editor
1945 – Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, 8th Prime Minister of Samoa
1946 – Mireille Guiliano, French-American author
1948 – Berry Berenson, American photographer, actress and model (d. 2001)
1948 – Anastasios Papaligouras, Greek lawyer and politician
1949 – DeAnne Julius, American/English economist
1949 – Chris Langham, British actor, writer, producer, director
1949 – John Shea, American actor
1950 – Francis Collins, American scientist, director of National Health Institutes
1950 – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian writer
1951 – Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist
1951 – José Eduardo González Navas, Spanish politician
1952 – Mickey O'Sullivan, Irish sportsman
1953 – David Buss, Evolutionary psychologist
1954 – Bruce Sterling, American science fiction author
1957 – Lothaire Bluteau, Canadian actor
1957 – Richard Jeni, American comedian (d. 2007)
1957 – Mikhail Pletnev, Russian pianist, conductor and composer
1958 – Peter Capaldi, Scottish actor and director
1958 – John D'Aquino, American actor
1960 – Brad Garrett, American actor
1961 – Robert Carlyle, British actor
1961 – Daniel Clowes, American cartoonist and screenwriter
1962 – Scott Boman, American politician
1962 – Guillaume LeBlanc, Canadian athlete
1964 – Greg Battle, Canadian football player
1964 – Gina McKee, British actress
1965 – Tom Dey, American film director
1965 – Alexandre Jardin, French novelist
1965 – Kirk Windstein, American guitarist (Crowbar, Down)
1966 – David Justice, American baseball player
1966 – André Boisclair, Quebec politician (Parti Québécois)
1966 – Greg Maddux, American baseball player
1967 – Barrett Martin, American drummer and composer
1967 – Nicola Berti, Italian footballer
1967 – Steve Chiasson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1999)
1967 – Alain Côté, French Canadian ice hockey player
1968 – Anthony Michael Hall, American actor
1969 – Brad Ausmus, American baseball player
1969 – Martyn LeNoble, Dutch musician
1969 – Mark Macon, American basketball player
1969 – Vebjørn Selbekk, Norwegian journalist
1970 – Emre Altug, Turkish singer
1970 – Shizuka Kudo, Japanese singer
1970 – Steve Avery, American baseball player
1971 – Miguel Calero, Colombian footballer
1971 – Carlos Pérez, Dominican baseball player
1971 – Gregg Zaun, American baseball player
1972 – Paul Devlin, England-born Scottish footballer
1972 – Roberto Mejia, Dominican baseball player
1973 – Roberto Ayala, Argentine footballer
1973 – Adrien Brody, American actor
1973 – David Miller, American tenor (Il Divo)
1974 – Da Brat (Shawntae Harris), American rapper
1975 – Luciano Almeida, Brazilian footballer
1975 – Amy Birnbaum, American voice actress
1975 – Amy Dumas, American professional wrestler
1975 – Avner Dorman, Israeli composer
1975 – Konstantinos Nebegleras, Greek footballer
1975 – Rajeshwari Sachdev, Indian actress
1975 – Anderson Silva, Brazilian mixed martial artist
1976 – Christian Älvestam, Swedish musician (Scar Symmetry)
1976 – Georgina Chapman, English fashion designer
1976 – Anna DeForge, American basketball player
1976 – Kyle Farnsworth, American baseball player
1976 – Jason Wiemer, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress
1977 – Chandra Levy, American intern (d. 2001)
1977 – Rob McElhenney, American actor
1978 – Paul O'Brien, Australian actor
1979 – Rebecca DiPietro, American model
1979 – Marios Elia, Greek-Cypriot footballer
1979 – Ross Filipo, New Zealand rugby player
1979 – Noé Pamarot, French footballer
1980 – Win Butler, American/Canadian musician (Arcade Fire)
1980 – Claire Coffee, American actress
1980 – Kieran Mahon, British musician (The Cooper Temple Clause)
1981 – Mustafa Güngör, German rugby player
1981 – Amy Leach, British theatre director
1982 – Mahii Vij, Indian actress
1983 – James McFadden, Scottish footballer
1983 – William Obeng, Ghanaian/American football player
1983 – Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Georgian basketball player
1984 – Blake Costanzo, American football player
1984 – Charles Hamelin, Canadian short track speed skater
1984 – Adán Sánchez, American singer (d. 2004)
1984 – Tyler Thigpen, American football player
1985 – Grant Clitsome, Canadian ice hockey Player
1986 – Matt Derbyshire, English footballer
1986 – Anne Watanabe, Japanese model
1986 – Todd Gilles, American ice dancer
1987 – Michael Baze, American horse racing jockey (d. 2011)
1987 – Erwin Hoffer, Austrian footballer
1987 – Korina Perkovic, German tennis player
1988 – Vasileios Pliatsikas, Greek footballer
1989 – Joe Haden, American football player
1989 – Dafina Zeqiri, Kosovan-Swedish singer
1990 – Markus Smarzoch, German footballer
1992 – Frederik Sørensen, Danish footballer
1993 – Vivien Cardone, American actress
1993 – Graham Phillips, American actor
1996 – Abigail Breslin, American actress

Deaths

1132 – Mstislav I of Kiev (b. 1076)
1279 – Boleslaw the Pious
1322 – Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord Badlesmere, English soldier (b. 1275)
1345 – Richard Aungerville, English bishop and writer (b. 1287)
1471 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, English kingmaker (b. 1428)
1574 – Louis of Nassau, Dutch general (killed in battle) (b. 1538)
1578 – James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, consort of Mary, Queen of Scots
1599 – Henry Wallop, English statesman
1662 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English statesman (b. 1582)
1682 – Avvakum, Russian priest and writer (b. 1621) (April 1 O.S.)
1716 – Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington, British admiral
1721 – Michel Chamillart, French statesman (b. 1652)
1759 – George Frideric Handel, German composer (b. 1685)
1785 – William Whitehead, English writer (b. 1715)
1792 – Maximilian Hell, Hungarian astronomer (b. 1720)
1864 – Charles Lot Church, Nova Scotia politician (b. 1777)
1910 – Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter (b. 1856)
1911 – Addie Joss, American baseball player (b. 1880)
1911 – Henri Elzéar Taschereau, French Canadian jurist and Chief Justice of Canada (b. 1836)
1912 – Henri Brisson, French statesman (b. 1835)
1914 – Hubert Bland, English co-founder of the Fabian Society (b. 1855)
1917 – L. L. Zamenhof, Polish creator of Esperanto (b. 1859)
1925 – John Singer Sargent, American artist (b. 1856)
1930 – Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian writer (b. 1893)
1935 – Amalie Emmy Noether, German mathematician (b. 1882)
1941 – Guillermo Kahlo, father of Frida Kahlo (b. 1871)
1943 – Yakov Dzhugashvili, the oldest child of Stalin (b. 1907)
1950 – Sri Ramana Maharshi, Indian philosopher (b. 1879)
1963 – Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, Indian historian, (b. 1893)
1964 – Tatyana Alexeyevna Afanasyeva, Russian/Dutch mathematician (b. 1876)
1964 – Rachel Carson, American author and environmentalist (b. 1907)
1965 – Dick Hickock (b. 1933) and Perry Smith (b. 1928) American murderers
1968 – Al Benton, American baseball player (b. 1911)
1975 – Günther Dyhrenfurth, Swiss mountaineer, geologist and Himalayan explorer (b. 1886)
1975 – Fredric March, American actor (b. 1897)
1976 – José Revueltas, Mexican writer (b. 1914)
1978 – Joe Gordon, American baseball player (b. 1915)
1983 – Gianni Rodari, Italian writer and journalist, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1970 (b. 1920)
1983 – Pete Farndon, English bassist (The Pretenders) (b. 1952)
1984 – Dionisis Papagiannopoulos, Greek actor (b. 1912)
1985 – Noele Gordon, English actress (b. 1919
1986 – Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (b. 1908)
1990 – Thurston Harris, American singer (b. 1931)
1990 – Olabisi Onabanjo, Nigerian politician (b. 1927)
1994 – Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani scientist and scholar (b. 1897)
1995 – Burl Ives, American singer and actor (b. 1909)
1997 – Gerda Christian, German secretary (b. 1913)
1999 – Ellen Corby, American actress (b. 1911)
1999 – Anthony Newley, British actor and singer (b. 1931)
2000 – Frenchy Bordagaray, American baseball player (b. 1910)
2000 – Phil Katz, American computer programmer (b. 1962)
2000 – Wilf Mannion, English footballer (b. 1918)
2001 – Jim Baxter, Scottish footballer (b. 1939)
2001 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director (b. 1927)
2003 – Jyrki Otila, Finnish quiz show judge and Member of the European Parliament (b. 1941)
2004 – Micheline Charest, French Canadian television producer (b. 1953)
2006 – Mahmut Bakalli, Kosovo politician (b. 1936)
2007 – June Callwood, Canadian journalist, author and social activist (b. 1924)
2007 – Don Ho, American musician (b. 1930)
2007 – René Rémond, French historian and political economist (b. 1918)
2008 – Miguel Galvan, Mexican actor/comedian. (b. 1957)
2008 – Tommy Holmes, American baseball player (b. 1918)
2008 – Ollie Johnston, the last living member of Disney's Nine Old Men. (b. 1912)
2009 – Maurice Druon, French novelist (b. 1918)
2010 – Peter Steele, American musician (b. 1962)
2011 – Trevor Bannister, English actor (b. 1934)
2011 – Walter Breuning, American supercentenarian (b. 1896)
2011 – Jean Gratton, Canadian Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1924)