ON THIS DAY WITH SHAUN WALLACE

April 14, 1865

US PRESIDENT Abraham Lincoln was shot by actor and Confederacy sympathiser John Wilkes Booth as he attended a theatre in Washington DC.

He was shot in the back of the head at point blank range and died nine hours later in a house opposite the Ford’s Theatre.

Lincoln became the first US President to be assassinated. The fatal strike was part of a larger conspiracy that included a simultaneous attack on Secretary of State William H Seward and the possible targeting of Vice President Andrew Johnson.

His murder came five days after the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E Lee, surrendered to the Union’s General Ulysses S Grant, effectively marking the end of the four-year civil war.

Booth and his fellow conspirators believed the conflict was unresolved as the Army of Tennessee continued fighting.

It and all other Confederacy forces surrendered on April 26.

On the night, the 16th president was accompanied by his wife Mary Todd Lincoln and Major Henry R Rathbone for a special performance of the comedy Our American Cousin. As Lincoln sat in the presidential box during the comedy’s last act, Booth snuck in behind him and shot him with a single-shot Derringer pistol at 10.20pm.

Major Rathbone grappled with Booth who jumped over the balcony, caught a spur in a flag draped over it and broke a leg bone on landing, before making his escape.

Pursued by Union soldiers for 12 days before being cornered in a barn, Booth refused to surrender. When it was set alight to flush him out, he was shot on April 26.

Assuming the presidency, Johnson considered the crime a military one and ordered the eight accused conspirators be tried before a military commission.

Lewis Powell, who unsuccessfully tried to kill Seward at the same time Lincoln was shot, was hanged alongside three others.

Question: Which acclaimed British actor and director, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for the 1981 romcom Arthur, was born in London on this day in 1904?

Last week I asked: Which highwayman from Essex was hanged in York on this day in 1739? DICK TURPIN.