The Lincoln assassination occurred on April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was attending a play titled "Our American Cousin" when Booth entered the presidential box and fired a single bullet into the back of his head. Lincoln died the following day, April 15, 1865, marking the first assassination of a U.S. president. Booth fled the scene and was pursued by Union soldiers, ultimately being killed on April 26, 1865. The assassination shocked the nation and had significant political repercussions during the Reconstruction era.