Photo of Ford's Theatre in Washington D. C. This is the famous theatre where president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. The handsome John Wilkes Booth was a successful Shakespearean actor and a southern sympathizer during the civil war. He shot the president in the back of the head with a 44 caliber derringer and made good his escape in spite of a broken leg. Later on the authorities caught up with him and shot him dead in a barn in Virginia.