One Day - Two Movies

April 14 was another one of those busy days in history (Is there any other kind?).  One event was the birth of a lady whose music has been heard for decades and whose life was immortalized by Sissy Spacek's Oscar winning performance in "Coal Miner's Daughter".  Happy Birthday to Loretta Lynn (nee Webb) born in 1935



On a much sadder note, this is the day when John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln.  In addition to Booth, there were several other conspirators whose actions are reflected in this note from This Day In History.

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 jumped to the stage and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis! [Thus always to tyrants]--the South is avenged!" Although Booth had broken his left leg jumping from Lincoln's box, he succeeded in escaping Washington.

Another person was charged with conspiracy in the later trial for the assassination: Southern sympathizer, Mary Surratt. Her story is told in the newly released "The Conspirator" where as the whole nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her reluctant lawyer to uncover the truth and save her life.