This day in Lexington, April twenty-sixth takes us back to eighteen sixty-five, when the final chapter of one of America's darkest stories played out in a Virginia tobacco barn. Union cavalry had been hunting John Wilkes Booth for twelve days since he assassinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. They finally cornered him and shot him dead on this date.

For Kentuckians, Lincoln's assassination hit especially close to home. Our state had given birth to the president in a one-room cabin in Hodgenville, and his death divided an already war-torn Commonwealth. While many mourned Lincoln as their native son, others still harbored Confederate sympathies. Booth's death brought a sense of justice, but it couldn't heal the deep wounds left by four years of civil war that had literally split Kentucky families apart.

The manhunt that ended on this April day had captivated the entire nation. In an era before radio or television, newspapers were the only way people learned about the chase, and Kentuckians followed every detail as federal troops pursued Lincoln's killer through Maryland and into Virginia.

That's your history for today.

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