Abraham Lincoln 🇺🇸 was shot #OTD 1865 by John Wilkes Booth
Booth actually had no intention on shooting Lincoln that night. He stopped by Ford’s Theater to get his mail & heard Lincoln would be there that night w/US Grant 🇺🇸
That got the ball rolling for Booth & his crew #POTUS
THE PLAN
- Booth kills Lincoln & his guest US Grant 🇺🇸
- Lewis Powell kills Sec. of State Wm. Seward at home
- David Herold helps Powell
- George Atzerodt would kill VP Andrew Johnson 🇺🇸 in his hotel room
- They would all in Maryland at Mary Surratt’s tavern #POTUS 💔
BOOTH ON THE RUN
John Wilkes Booth & David Herold fled Union troops hot on their trail, fleeing into Virginia, & finally to Richard Garrett’s Farm
They evaded their captors for 12 days
In Garrett’s tobacco barn, Booth would be shot & killed after a standoff with troops #POTUS
BACK AT FORD’S THEATER (#OTD 1865)
Lincoln, having been shot, laid dying in his wife’s arms when doctors attended to him. They moved him to the floor and began life-saving efforts
NOTE: Lincoln’s head ended up cradled in actress Laura Keane’s lap who offered her help #POTUS 💔
MOVING LINCOLN
Lincoln needed to be moved. He was carried across the street to William Peterson’s house
Since Lincoln was so tall he was laid diagonal in one of the beds
Crowds gathered outside while the Cabinet, family, & others kept vigil & doctors kept him comfortable #POTUS
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Stories behind some of the popular pictures, portraits, and moments of our Presidents
Today’s subject:
Herbert Hoover 🇺🇸 Meets
Adolf Hitler
Enjoy the thread below ⬇️!
#POTUS 🧵
Like many people, I was just as shocked when I learned that a meeting took place between the recently defeated ex-President Herbert Hoover 🇺🇸 and the fledgling leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler
#POTUS ⬇️
I suppose some context would be appropriate…
The year was 1938 and Herbert Hoover 🇺🇸 was traveling through Europe to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the end of “The Great War” (WWI)
Every now and then I like to highlight characters in history who crossed paths with American Presidents in some way, shape or form.
Today…
I’d like to talk **briefly** about a lawyer named Lambdin Milligan…
Enjoy the thread! 🧵
#POTUS 🇺🇸
Milligan was an Ohio boy who ended up studying law, eventually passing the bar in Ohio. He was actually classmates with Edwin Stanton! Stanton would go onto be Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln 🇺🇸
But I digress…keep reading!
#POTUS 🧵
Milligan moved to Indiana to continue his law career. There he involved himself in heavy “states rights” politics, and followed guys like John Calhoun and Martin Van Buren 🇺🇸
Milligan eventually identified as a “Copperhead”—a Democrat opposing the Civil War & Lincoln
While it can be argued the Vietnam War touched many Presidents - it can be argued further that it impacted the presidency - and health - of Lyndon Baines Johnson 🇺🇸 the hardest
“I guess we’ve got no choice, but it scares the death out of me. I think everybody’s going to think, ‘we’re landing the Marines, we’re off to battle.’”
- Lyndon Baines Johnson 🇺🇸
6 March 1965.
On 8 March 1965 the first combat troops touched the beaches of Danang
The Amendment limiting the election of a President of the United States to two terms finds its roots in George Washington 🇺🇸, who opted only for two terms as the first President of the United States.
Although there were many in the tradition of George Washington 🇺🇸who served only two-terms, it wasn’t until Franklin Roosevelt 🇺🇸 was elected to a 3rd and 4th term that concerns over unlimited terms began to be taken seriously. #POTUS ⬇️
The 1946 midterm elections united conservatives from both parties, Republicans and Democrats, to propose the 22nd Amendment in 1947.
It was ratified by the states in 1951 under Harry Truman 🇺🇸.
Interestingly, Oklahoma and Massachusetts voted to reject the Amendment 🤔 #POTUS ⬇️
"OPERATION PAPERCLIP" was a top-secret program of the US Government where ~1,600 German scientists (most of them Nazis) were brought to the US after World War II mainly to defeat the Soviets in the Cold War & Space Race.
It was authorized by Harry Truman 🇺🇸 in 1946. #POTUS ⬇️
Harry Truman 🇺🇸 forbade anyone who was "a member of the Nazi party and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazism" to participate in the program.
To this effect, background checks on the scientists were ordered but...
...against Truman's 🇺🇸 orders the scientists' Nazi backgrounds were scrubbed
After the Nuremberg Trials word got out, so the Army did damage control by distributing "wholesome" pictures of the men w/families & pre-approving all media content related to the scientists