Booth's birthday today

I'm working on some fun material about history-making weapons for a new publishing partner (more on that announcement soon), and one of the weapons I've been including in my list was the .44-caliber derringer (see picture below) that John Wilkes Booth used to mortally wound President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater, just a few days after Robert E. Lee surrendered Southern forces at Appomattox. Turns out that today is Booth's 162 birthday.

Booth, who made his acting debut at age 17, was scion of a famous British acting family (a friend of mine knows some of his family's descendants in the Los Angeles area). Booth had come to the young former colony to make his own substantial fame and fortune, touring widely to great acclaim for his Shakespearean roles, including multiple performances before the president before the fateful night.

That morning, Booth had come to the theater to pick up his mail, heard the president would be attending that night, and hatched his assassination plan as revenge for the South's loss. The only weapon he could find on such short notice was the single-shot derringer now on display at Ford's.

After shooting Lincoln, Booth leaped from the president's box to the stage, but injured his leg badly. He managed to escape the theater, but was tracked down in a massive manhunt 12 days later and killed by a Union soldier. He was just 27.