Video: 'Ken Burns - The Civil War: Episode 9 - The Better Angels of Our Nature (1865) |Ken Burns Documentary' (Lincoln arrives at 14:07)

(Good Friday, April 14, 1865, 8:30 p.m.; during the American Civil War) — President Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris arrived at Ford’s Theatre in Washington tonight and settled by into the presidential box.

The play Our American Cousin, already in progress, was stopped briefly and the orchestra played “Hail to the Chief” as the packed house of 1,700 gave the president a rousing standing ovation.

General and Mrs. Grant had declined the invitation to see the play with the Lincolns, as Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant were not on good terms. Several other people were invited to join them, until finally Rathbone and Harris accepted.