1865: President Lincoln assassinated

At Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., actor John Wilkes Booth fatally shoots U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The attack came only five days after the American Civil War effectively ended with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. Born in a log cabin in backwoods Kentucky, Lincoln was nominated as the first presidential candidate of the Republican Party in 1860. The election of the anti-slavery Lincoln brought about the secession of the Southern states, and in April 1861 the Civil War began. In 1863, as the tide turned against the Confederacy, he emancipated the slaves and won re-election in 1864. For preserving the Union and bringing an end to slavery, and for his unique character and powerful oratory, Lincoln is widely regarded as the greatest American president.