“Lincoln Assassinated,” and “Coalminers Daughter Loretta Lynn is born,” - This Day in History – Apr 14th

Abraham Lincoln Assassinated

Back in 1865, and just five days after the end of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot by  John Wilkes Booth at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. 

According to history.com, “Booth, a Maryland native born in 1838, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, initially plotted to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces.” 

Booth’s assassination plan to kill Lincoln was his way of saving the Confederacy.  His plan was to create a simultaneous assassination with the help of his Confederate soldiers by also killing Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State, William H. Seward. 

History.com stated that, “On the evening of April 14, conspirator Lewis T. Powell burst into Secretary of State Seward's home, seriously wounding him and three others, while George A. Atzerodt, assigned to Vice President Johnson, lost his nerve and fled. Meanwhile, just after 10 p.m., Booth entered Lincoln's private theater box unnoticed and shot the president with a single bullet in the back of his head. Slashing an army officer who rushed at him, Booth leapt to the stage and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis! [Thus always to tyrants]–the South is avenged!" Although Booth broke his leg jumping from Lincoln's box, he managed to escape Washington on horseback.” 

Abraham Lincoln’s death made him the first U.S. President to be assassinated.  Booth was later cornered in a barn near Bowling Green, VA by army and secret forces.  He would die by a possibly by a self-inflicted bullet.  Four of his accomplices would be hanged and four others were sent to jail.

Special Note: Check out the video of one of the Assassination Witnesses appear on the game show, “I’ve Got A Secret.”

Country Singing Legend, Loretta Lynn, is born

Back in 1935, Butcher’s Hollow, KY welcomed future country music superstar, Loretta Webb, who would be known to the music world as Loretta Lynn.  Ms. Lynn according to history.com was, “a singer who greatly expanded the opportunities for women in the male-dominated world of country-western music.”

Ms. Lynn was known as, “The Coalminer’s Daughter,” due to her being the daughter of a coal miner who worked long and hard trying to support his family, which included his wife, Loretta and six other children.  

The lyrics from her song, “Coalminer’s Daughter,” gave an in depth description of her family life.  Some of the words from this famous song were: 

“My daddy worked all night in the Van Lear Coal Mines,
All day long in the field a-hoein' corn,
Mommy rocked the babies at night,
And read The Bible by the coal-oil light,
Everything would start all over come break of morn'.” 

According to history.com, “Unlike some country-western stars that sang about a rural working class life but lived an urban middle class existence, Loretta Lynn's country roots were unquestionably authentic. Born Loretta Webb in a log cabin nestled in the backwoods hills of Kentucky, she was the daughter of a coal miner who worked long hours to keep his family fed and clothed. She met her future husband, Mooney Lynn, when she was only 13. They married a year later, and she gave birth to her first child when she was 14 years old. Lynn had three more children before she was 21 and was a grandmother at 29.” 

“Lynn continued to enjoy great success in the 1970s, and the film account of her life, Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), won her a new generation of fans. After an interlude during the 1990s, Lynn returned to the recording studio and released a new recording in 2000. She continues to bring a compelling female perspective to the world of country-western music.”

All History facts provided from the link below:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-lincoln-is-shot?catId=9