This Day in History: April 14

Here’s a brief look back in time for this day, April 14.

In 1865, 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by actor John Wilke Booth in Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. This was only a few days after the conclusion of the American Civil War, where the Confederacy surrendered to the Union in Virginia. Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, aimed to “revive” the Confederate movement as written in a note to his mother which stated: “Our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done”. Booth did not act alone, however. He was one out of 10 conspirators who were connected to Lincoln’s assassination. 4 were tried and executed; 2 were sentenced to life imprisonment but were pardoned by later administrations; 1 died of yellow fever while imprisoned; 1 was sentenced to six years of hard labor; and 1 was acquitted by a hung jury. The last one, Booth, was shot and killed at the Richard Garret Farm in Virginia.

In 1935, one of the worst dust storms in American history occurs in the midst of the Dust Bowl. This was a period in the 1930s where over-plowing and over-grazing eroded topsoil, creating drought and an agronomic meltdown as local farms struggle to grow crops. This particular storm, called “Black Sunday”, completely blotted out the sun in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. High windspeeds resulted in over 300,000 tons of topsoil to be blown across the Great Plains.