President Abraham Lincoln wakes up at dawn on Good Friday 1865. His wife, Mary Todd, and his younger son Tad join him at breakfast. Later in the morning, Robert Lincoln arrives from being at Appomattox of the surrender of the Confederacy from General Robert E. Lee. He goes on with his normal day around the White House with visiting the telegraph office and having cabinet meetings.
Later in the afternoon around 3 p.m., Lincoln and his wife take a carriage ride with his wife Mary. They talked about the next four years and stated that “We must both be more cheerful in the future, and between the war and the loss of their son Willy in 1862, we have been both very miserable.” They stop at the Navy Yards and see three Monitor Union warships in the harbor.
President Lincoln feels the need to enjoy himself after the pressing matters of governmental affairs all day. Even though his wife Mary is complaining about a headache, they still go in their carriage and head towards Ford’s Theatre for the comical show staring Miss Laura Keene. Throughout the day, Abraham Lincoln asked many people to accompany him to this event. In total, about eighteen said they had other plans for them not to attend.
At 8:30 p.m., Lincoln arrives with his wife Mary Todd, and her good friend Clara Harris and her fiancé’ Major Rathbone. Since they were about half an hour late from the play beginning, the show “Our American Cousin” stops briefly as the Orchestra plays “Hail to the Chief” within the packed house at the theatre. Lincoln sits in a rocking hair with his wife Mary in a wooden chair next to him. Their guests Clara and Major Rathbone sit on the couch in the presidential box.
As the third act begins, laughter and loud conversation begins on the stage. The time is around 10 p.m. to 10:10 p.m. As the laughter continues, John Wilkes Booth enters the theatre from the back door and walks up towards the presidential box. He loads his small derringer handgun, opens the door and steps behind Lincoln without anyone noticing. The reason no one noticed was the roar of laughter from the audience at awkward part of the play. He points the gun behind Lincoln’s head about a foot behind his head, and fired. Lincoln slumps forward in his rocking chair, and his head drops down to his chest. Major Rathbone lunges forward at John W. Booth, only to be slashed a few times with a bowie knife. Clara Harris and Mary Todd are screaming for help and trying to get attention on what Mr. Booth just did to their men.
John Wilkes Booth leapt from the presidential box down to the stage, which is a distance of about 12 feet. Has he lands onto the stage, he breaks the fibula of his left leg. As an actor, Booth turned to the audience, lifted the bloody knife above his head, and shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis” – the motto of Virginia, often translated as “Thus Always to Tyrants”. He then ran out of the theatre and got onto an awaiting horse that he rode out of Washington and met up with one of the co-conspirators .