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John Wilkes Booth
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American stage actor and assassin (1838–1865)
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, fundamentally altering the course of the nation's Reconstruction period. His act remains one of the most consequential crimes in American history, making him a figure of enduring historical significance.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1838
- Died
- 1864
- Works
- 2
Top works
- Right or wrong, God judge me
- The Jack Morgan songster
via Open Library + Wikidata
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Family name
- Booth
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Bel Air
- Place of death
- Port Royal
- Father
- Junius Brutus Booth
- Sibling
- Asia Booth
- Occupation
- stage actor
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- English language
- Religion
- Protestantism
- Field of work
- political murder
- Image
- John Wilkes Booth-portrait.jpg
- Significant event
- assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Show 11 more facts
- place of burial
- Green Mount Cemetery
- Commons category
- John Wilkes Booth
- date of birth
- 1838-05-10
- date of death
- 1865-04-26
- cause of death
- gunshot wound
- Commons gallery
- John Wilkes Booth
- name in native language
- John Wilkes Booth
- writing language
- English language
- start of work period
- 1855-00-00
- manner of death
- homicide
- unmarried partner
- Lucy Lambert Hale
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States president Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland, he was a noted actor who was also a Confederate sympathizer; denouncing Lincoln, he lamented the then-recent abolition of slavery in the United States.
Originally, Booth and his small group of conspirators had plotted to kidnap Lincoln to aid the Confederate cause. They later decided to murder him, as well as Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. Although the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, had surrendered to the Union Army four days earlier, Booth believed that the American Civil War remained unresolved because the Army of Tennessee of General Joseph E. Johnston continued fighting.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “John Wilkes Booth” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.