Video: 'Ken Burns - The Civil War: Episode 9 - The Better Angels of Our Nature (1865) |Ken Burns Documentary' (Lincoln assassination at 14:49; shot fired at 15:36)

(Good Friday, April 14, 1865, approximately 10:13 p.m.; during the American Civil War) — John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head near point blank range tonight after entering the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington during a performance of Our American Cousin.

The bullet entered Lincoln’s head about three inches behind the left ear and traveled about seven 1/2 inches into the brain. Lincoln’s head inclined toward his chest, and Mrs. Lincoln screamed.

Booth struggled briefly with Major Henry Rathbone, stabbed him with a knife, leaped 11 feet to the stage, broke the fibula bone in his left leg, and escaped from the theater.

A surgeon from the audience pronounced the wound mortal. It was decided to move the president, and his comatose body was carried across the street to the Petersen House.

At about the same time, Booth’s accomplice, Lewis Powell, attacked Secretary of State William Seward at his home, stabbing him in his bed (Seward was recovering from injuries received in a carriage accident on Apr. 5, 1865).

Meantime, another Booth conspirator, George Atzerodt, decided not to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at his residence, the Kirkwood Hotel.