After the fall of the Confederate capital at Richmond (April 4) and General Lee's large-scale surrender of Confederate forces (April 9), Booth decided to kill Lincoln instead of kidnapping him. According to Booth's former friend, Louis Weichmann, Booth may have made the decision to kill the President after hearing Lincoln deliver a speech on April 11 urging Negro suffrage. Weichmann spoke of his viewing of the President's speech with Booth:
On April 14, 1865, while picking up his mail at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., Booth found out that Lincoln would be going to a play with his wife there that evening. Booth knew the play well. Booth met with his co-conspirators and made a plan to kill President Lincoln, Vice-President Johnson, Secretary of State Seward, and possibly General Grant—all around 10:15 that evening. That afternoon Booth prepared a peep hole into the balcony room the Presidential party would use. During the play, Booth quietly entered the unguarded balcony room. At 10:15 pm, following a line in the play he knew would get a laugh, Booth fired a pistol at point-blank range into the back of Lincoln's head. Booth escaped by jumping from the balcony onto the stage, where he shouted a triumphant line to the audience. He broke his leg during the jump, but escaped out the back door and onto his horse.
The mortally wounded Lincoln was carried across the street to Petersen House, where he died the next morning. One co-conspirator did attack Secretary of State Seward with a knife the night of the 14th, but Seward survived the attack. The conspirator who planned to attack Vice-President Johnson did not follow through with the plot.
Booth fled with an accomplice south through Maryland to Virginia. An army troop caught up with him on April 26. His accomplice surrendered but Booth refused. He died from shots fired during his capture. Booth cried out, "I will not be taken alive!". The bullet struck Booth in the back of the head behind his left ear, passed though his neck, and out into the barn. A low scream of pain like that produced by a sudden throttling came from the assassin, and he pitched headlong to the floor. Corbett and the other soliders would note a sense of poetic, or cosmic, justice in that Lincoln and Booth were each shot around the same spot of the head. And the damage to Booth was no less severe than that to Lincoln: the bullet had pierced three vertebrae and partially severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him. Their conditions were different as well, as Mary Clemmer Ames summed it up, "The balls entered the skull of each at nearly the same spot, but the trilling difference made an immeasurable difference in the sufferings of the two. Mr. Lincoln was unconscious of all pain, while his assassin suffered as exquisite agony as if he had been broken on a wheel." A soldier poured water into his mouth, which he immediately spat out, unable to swallow. The bullet wound prevented him from swallowing any of the liquid. In a weak voice, Booth asked for water and Conger and Baker gave it to him. He asked them to roll him over and turn him facedown. Conger thought it a bad idea. Then at least turn me on my side, the assassin pleaded. They did, but Conger saw that the move did not relieve Booth’s suffering. Baker noticed it, too: "He seemed to suffer extreme pain whenever he was moved...and would several times repeat, ‘Kill me.’" At sunrise, Booth remained in agonising pain. His pulse weakening as his breathing became more laboured and irregular. In agony, unable to move his limbs, he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face and whispered as he gazed at them, "Useless ... Useless." These were his last words. A few minutes later, Booth began gasping for air as his throat continued to swell, then there was a shiver and a gurgle and his body shuddered, before Booth died from asphyxia - he literally choked to death.
Corbett maintained that he didn't intend to kill Booth, but merely wanted to inflict a disabling wound, but either his aim slipped or Booth moved at the moment Corbett pulled the trigger.
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the census held in the year 2010, its population was 38,394. It is home to the United States Naval Academy, where the United States Naval Officers get their training. It is also home to Saint John's College, originally King William's School founded in 1696. Annapolis is the oldest seat of government still in service in America.
Annapolis became the temporary capital of the United States after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Congress was in session in the state house from November 26, 1783 to June 3, 1784, and it was in Annapolis on December 23, 1783 that General Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.
Annapolis is also known as the sailing capital of the U.S., situated on the Chesapeake Bay, the largest inland tidal estuary in the world. The Chesapeake is Maryland's canary in the coal mine, troubled for the last 50 years by ever increasing degradation as an indicator of its citizens concern for economic or material value over that of their land. The Chesapeake Bay can not sustain the higher life that once proliferated these waters, and 3 of the main harvests need to be re-stocked by man in order to maintain 1/10th (or less) of the numbers - Oysters and Rockfish, and more recently as reported in the Capital, Blue Crab stocks are at an all-time and ever-decreasing low, with scientists from University of Maryland researching how to raise crabs for re-introduction.
Chesapeake Bay Native plants and animals are often crowded out by invasive species which are more hardy to the now-polluted environment. Fragmites, the Chinese Mitten Crab, English Ivy, and the Mute Swan are examples of invasive species thriving in this man-altered environment.
Annapolis is the only capital city in America east of the Mississippi River without any rail transportation.
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves (born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles in movies like the "Bill and Ted" series, "The Matrix" series, "Speed", and "John Wick".
At age 9, he started his acting career by appearing onstage, and at age 14, he appeared in Canadian television series and commercials. He also appeared in short movies and stage work in early 1980s. Keanu acted his first significant role in "River's Edge" (1987), and the next year (1988), he appeared in some movies such as "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Permanent Record". In 1989, he appeared in the successful comedy "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", which was one of the "Bill and Ted" series. In 2008 he played the alien in "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
In 2014, he began playing John Wick in three movies: "John Wick", "" and "".
Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of Patricia Bond (née Taylor), an English-born costume designer/performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr. His father, who is a Hawaiian-born American, has English, Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry. Reeves has said: "My grandmother is Chinese and Hawaiian, so I was around Chinese art, furniture and cuisine when I was growing up". He is named after his uncle, and his first name is a Hawaiian word that means 'cool breeze over the mountains'.
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994) was an American musician. He was the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana, which also included bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl. He was also a left-handed guitarist.
Cobain was born in the city of Aberdeen, Washington. His parents divorced when he was seven years old. During his sophomore year in high school, Cobain began living with his mother in Aberdeen. In late 1986 Cobain moved into an apartment. At this time he often travelled to Olympia to go to rock concerts.