President Abraham Lincoln was watching the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre when he was assassinated on April 14, 1865
. John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, knew the play well and timed his fatal shot to coincide with one of the play's funniest lines, hoping the audience's laughter would mask the sound of the gunshot
. Booth entered the presidential box during the performance and shot Lincoln in the back of the head, then escaped by leaping onto the stage and fleeing through a rear door
. The play was a farcical comedy about a redneck American who travels to England to claim his inheritance, and the performance that night was modified to honor Lincoln, including a line about the draft being stopped by the President's order
. Thus, the play Lincoln was watching at the moment of his assassination was Our American Cousin
