Booth, John Wilkes

1838 - Born on the 10th day of May in Bel Air, Maryland.

1850 - Attended Milton Boarding School for Boys located in Sparks, Maryland.

1851 - At the age of 13 he attended St. Timothy's Military Academy in Catonsville, Maryland.

1858 - Became a member of the Richmond Theatre, and his career started to take off.

1859 - He happened to be preparing for a theatrical engagement in Richmond, Virginia, a few weeks before the scheduled execution of the famous abolitionist John Brown.

1860 - Wrote a long speech that decried what he saw as Northern abolitionism and made clear his strong support of the South and the institution of slavery, when Abraham Lincoln was elected president this year.

1862 - He was outspoken in his love for the South, and equally outspoken in his hatred for Lincoln, and was arrested and taken before a provost marshal in St. Louis for making anti-government remarks.

1863 - He was playing Raphael in Charles Selby's The Marble Heart at Ford's Theatre. President Lincoln viewed him.

1865 - Learned that the President and Mrs. Lincoln would be attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater. He immediately set about making plans for the assassination, which included a getaway horse waiting outside, and an escape route. He was dragged from the fire, and he died on 26th of April at the porch of the nearby farmhouse. The bullet had severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him.

1867 - His body was exhumed; it was placed in a pine box locked in a warehouse at the prison.

1869 - Once again identified before being released to the Booth family, where it was buried in an unmarked location in the family plot at Green mount Cemetery in Baltimore.