https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Lindley

Fleetwood Herndon Lindley (April 4, 1887 – February 1, 1963) was the last surviving person to have looked upon the face of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln before his final burial at his tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery on September 26, 1901; Lindley was fourteen years old at the time.

Lindley was born in Illinois, the son of Joseph Perry Lindley[3] and Julia Herndon.[4] Joseph Lindley was a member of the Lincoln Guard of Honor, assembled in February 1880 by John Carroll Power, custodian of Lincoln's tomb, in response to the attempted theft of Lincoln's remains from the tomb in November 1876.[5] In 1900–1901, the tomb underwent a massive reconstruction, and Lincoln's body was to be placed in a steel cage which would be filled with Portland cement. To satisfy their curiosity and lay to rest rumors that his body was no longer there, the surviving members of the Guard of Honor decided to open Lincoln's coffin for a final inspection.

On the morning of September 26, Lindley's teacher gave him a note from his father, telling him to get on his bicycle and ride as fast as he could to Oak Ridge Cemetery to witness a historic occasion. In an interview on January 29, 1963, three days before his death, Lindley recalled what he had seen: "Yes, his face was chalky white. His clothes were mildewed. And I was allowed to hold one of the leather straps as we lowered the casket for the concrete to be poured. I was not scared at the time but I slept with Lincoln for the next six months."[6] Though George Cashman, a later custodian of Lincoln's tomb, claimed to be the last person to have seen Lincoln's face that day, Cashman's wife Dorothy refuted this in a pamphlet, stating, "At the time of his death in 1963 Fleetwood Lindley was the last living person to have looked upon Mr. Lincoln's face."

Lindley became a florist in adulthood, and later married with two children. He died in Springfield on February 1, 1963, and is buried at the Lindley family plot in Oak Ridge Cemetery, not far from Lincoln's tomb.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln



United States President Abraham Lincoln was shot on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre as the American Civil War was drawing to a close.[1] The assassination occurred five days after the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee, surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army of the Potomac.

Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated.[2] An unsuccessful attempt had been made on Andrew Jackson 30 years before in 1835, and Lincoln had himself been the subject of an earlier assassination attempt by an unknown assailant in August 1864. The assassination of Lincoln was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger conspiracy in a bid to revive the Confederate cause.
Booth's three co-conspirators were Lewis Powell and David Herold, who were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt who was tasked to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. By simultaneously eliminating the top three people in the administration, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to sever the continuity of the United States government.

Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. He died early the next morning. The rest of the conspirators' plot failed; Powell only managed to wound Seward, while Atzerodt, Johnson's would-be assassin, lost his nerve and fled. The funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln was a period of national mourning.

<snip>

Booth shoots President Lincoln

Contrary to the information Booth had overheard, General and Mrs. Grant had declined the invitation to see the play with the Lincolns, as Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant were not on good terms. Several other people were invited to join them, until finally Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris) accepted.

Lincoln told Speaker Schuyler Colfax, “I suppose it’s time to go though I would rather stay.” He assisted Mary into the carriage and they took off.

There is evidence to suggest that either Booth or his fellow conspirator Michael O'Laughlen, who looked similar, followed Grant and his wife Julia to Union Station late that afternoon and discovered that Grant would not be at the theater that night. Apparently, O'Laughlen boarded the same train the Grants took to Philadelphia in order to kill Grant. An alleged attack during the evening took place; however, the assailant was unsuccessful since the private car that the Grants were riding in had been locked and guarded by porters.[15]
The Lincoln party arrived late and settled into the Presidential Box, which was actually two corner box seats with the dividing wall between them removed. The play was stopped briefly and the orchestra played "Hail to the Chief" as the audience gave the president a rousing standing ovation. Ford's Theatre was full with 1,700 in attendance.[16] Mrs. Lincoln whispered to her husband, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" The president smiled and replied, "She won't think anything about it". Those were the last words ever spoken by Abraham Lincoln, although it was claimed he later told his wife he desired to visit the Holy Land, finishing by saying, "There is no place I so much desire to see as Jerusalem."

The box was supposed to be guarded by a policeman named John Frederick Parker who, by all accounts, was a curious choice for a bodyguard.[18] During the intermission, Parker went to a nearby tavern with Lincoln's footman and coachman. It is unclear whether he ever returned to the theatre, but he was certainly not at his post when Booth entered the box.[19] Nevertheless, even if a policeman had been present it is questionable at best as to whether he would have denied entry to the Presidential Box to a premier actor such as John Wilkes Booth - Booth's celebrity status meant that his approach did not warrant any questioning from audience members, who assumed he was coming to call on the President. Dr. George Brainerd Todd, a Navy Surgeon who had been aboard when the Lincolns visited his ship the monitor Montauk on April 14, was also present at Ford's Theatre that evening and wrote in an eyewitness account that:



Upon gaining access through the first door of the entry to the Presidential Box, Booth barricaded the inward-swinging door behind him with a wooden stick that he wedged between the wall and the door. He then turned around, and looked through the tiny peep-hole he had carved in the second door (which granted entry to the Presidential Box) earlier that day.

Although he had never starred in the play itself, Booth knew the play by heart, and thus waited for the precise moment when actor Harry Hawk (playing the lead role of the "cousin", Asa Trenchard), would be on stage alone to speak what was considered the funniest line of the play. Booth hoped to employ the enthusiastic response of the audience to muffle the sound of his gunshot. With the stage to himself, Asa (Hawk) responded to the recently departed Mrs. Mountchessington, "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!" Hysterical laughter began permeating the theatre. Lincoln was laughing at this line when he was shot.

Booth opened the door, crept forward and shot the President at point-blank range, mortally wounding him. The bullet struck the back of Lincoln's head behind his left ear, entered his skull, fractured part of it badly and went through the left side of his brain before lodging just above his right eye almost exiting the other side of his head. Lincoln immediately lost consciousness. Lincoln slumped over in his rocking chair, and then backward. Mary reached out, caught him, and then screamed when she realized what had happened.

Upon hearing the gunshot, Rathbone thought Booth shouted a word that sounded like "Freedom!" He quickly jumped from his seat and tried to prevent Booth from escaping, grabbing and struggling with him. Booth dropped the pistol on the floor and drew a knife, stabbing the major violently in the left forearm and reaching the bone. Rathbone quickly recovered and again tried to grab Booth as he was preparing to jump from the sill of the box. He grabbed onto Booth's coat causing Booth to vault over the rail of the box down to the stage below (about a twelve-foot drop).[23] In the process, Booth's right boot struck the framed engraving of Washington, turning it completely over and his riding spur became entangled on the Treasury flag decorating the box, and he landed awkwardly on his left foot. He raised himself up despite the injury and began crossing the stage, making the audience believe that he was part of the play. Booth held his bloody knife over his head, and yelled something to the audience.

While it is widely believed that Booth shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" (the Virginia state motto, meaning "Thus always to tyrants" in Latin) in the box, or when he landed on the stage, it's not actually clear whether the traditionally-cited quote by Booth is accurate. There are different "earwitness" accounts of what he said. While most witnesses recalled hearing Booth shout "Sic semper tyrannis!", others — including Booth himself — claimed that he only yelled "Sic semper!" Some didn't recall hearing Booth shout anything in Latin.

What Booth shouted in English is also muddied by varying recollections. Some witnesses said he shouted "The South is avenged!" Others thought they heard him say "Revenge for the South!" or "The South shall be free!" Two said Booth yelled "I have done it!"

While the audience were yet to realize what had happened, Maj. Joseph B. Stewart, a lawyer, rose instantly upon seeing Booth land on the stage and he climbed over the orchestra pit and footlights, and started pursuing Booth across the stage.[23] Mary Lincoln's and Clara Harris' screams and Rathbone's cries of "Stop that man!" caused the rest of the audience to realize that Booth's actions were not part of the show, and pandemonium immediately broke out.

Some of the men in the audience chased after him when they noticed what was going on, but failed to catch him. Booth ran across the stage just when Rathbone shouted and exited out the side door. On his way, he bumped into William Withers, Jr., the orchestra leader, and Booth stabbed at Withers with a knife.

Upon leaving the building, Booth approached the horse he had waiting outside. Booth struck Joseph "Peanuts" (also called "Peanut Johnny&quot [27] Burroughs, who was holding Booth's horse[28] in the forehead with the handle of his knife,[29] leaped onto the horse, apparently also kicking Burroughs in the chest with his good leg,[30] and rode away.
Katherine M. Evans, a young actress in the play, who was offstage in Ford's green room when Lincoln was shot, rushed on the stage after Booth's exit, and said in subsequent interviews in the 1900s "I looked and saw President Lincoln unconscious, his head dropping on his breast, his eyes closed, but with a smile still on his face".

</snip>

https://twitter.com/NewsArgusCops/status/587606542729478144

News-Argus Cops
?@NewsArgusCops
Tara Humphries, Wayne Community College said police have one suspect "under control." She could not elaborate further

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt#Last_days.2C_death_and_memorial

Last days, death and memorial
The President left the Yalta Conference on February 12, 1945, flew to Egypt and boarded the USS Quincy operating on the Great Bitter Lake near the Suez Canal. Aboard Quincy, the next day he met with Farouk I, king of Egypt, and Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia. On February 14, he held a historic meeting with King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia, a meeting some historians believe holds profound significance in U.S.-Saudi relations even today.[255] After a final meeting between Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Quincy steamed for Algiers, arriving February 18, at which time Roosevelt conferred with American ambassadors to Britain, France and Italy.[256] At Yalta, Lord Moran, Winston Churchill's physician, commenting on Roosevelt's ill health, said that he was a dying man.[257]

When Roosevelt returned to the United States, he addressed Congress on March 1 about the Yalta Conference,[258] and many were shocked to see how old, thin and frail he looked. He spoke while seated in the well of the House, an unprecedented concession to his physical incapacity. Roosevelt opened his speech by saying, "I hope that you will pardon me for this unusual posture of sitting down during the presentation of what I want to say, but... it makes it a lot easier for me not to have to carry about ten pounds of steel around on the bottom of my legs." Still in full command mentally, he firmly stated "The Crimean Conference ought to spell the end of a system of unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have been tried for centuries– and have always failed. We propose to substitute for all these, a universal organization in which all peace-loving nations will finally have a chance to join."

During March 1945, he sent strongly worded messages to Stalin accusing him of breaking his Yalta commitments over Poland, Germany, prisoners of war and other issues. When Stalin accused the western Allies of plotting a separate peace with Hitler behind his back, Roosevelt replied: "I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment towards your informers, whoever they are, for such vile misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates."[260]

On March 29, 1945, Roosevelt went to the Little White House at Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest before his anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations. On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head." He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The president's attending cardiologist, Dr. Howard Bruenn, diagnosed a massive cerebral hemorrhage (stroke).[261] At 3:35 p.m. that day, Roosevelt died. As Allen Drury later said, “so ended an era, and so began another.” After Roosevelt's death, an editorial by The New York Times declared, "Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House".[262]

At the time he collapsed, Roosevelt had been sitting for a portrait painting by the artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff, known as the famous Unfinished Portrait of FDR.

In his later years at the White House, when Roosevelt was increasingly overworked, his daughter Anna Roosevelt Boettiger had moved in to provide her father companionship and support. Anna had also arranged for her father to meet with his former mistress, the now widowed Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd. Shoumatoff, who maintained close friendships with both Roosevelt and Mercer, rushed Mercer away to avoid negative publicity and implications of infidelity.

On the morning of April 13, Roosevelt's body was placed in a flag-draped coffin and loaded onto the presidential train. After a White House funeral on April 14, Roosevelt was transported back to Hyde Park by train. As was his wish, Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of the Springwood estate, the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park on April 15. Eleanor, who died in November 1962, was buried next to him.

Roosevelt's death was met with shock and grief[263] across the US and around the world. His declining health had not been known to the general public.

Less than a month after his death, on May 8, the war in Europe ended. President Harry S. Truman dedicated Victory in Europe Day and its celebrations to Roosevelt's memory, and kept the flags across the U.S. at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period, saying that his only wish was "that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day."

http://poststar.com/news/local/saratoga-county-sheriff-s-officer-suspended-over-video-video-link/article_a6a4ad30-673e-11e4-93e3-97904b348106.html

A video posted online that appeared to show a Saratoga County sheriff’s officer slap a person he had stopped has led to suspension of the officer and a criminal investigation, police said early Saturday.

The video shows the officer, Sgt. Shawn Glans, cursing at the person he was speaking with, and the sound of what the videotaper alleges was a slap can be heard. Officers had spotted a rifle in the back of the parked car, according to the video.

The incident took place during an interview early Friday at the Route 9 Walmart in Halfmoon, according to Post-Star media partners WNYT-TV Newschannel 13. Deputies responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle, and found a car in a business’s parking lot with the rifle in the back seat.

Glans and another officer questioned two young men who they saw walk to the car, and a confrontation ensued when the owner refused to give police access to the vehicle.

“It is disturbing,” Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said of the situation Saturday. “The minute we heard about it, we began an investigation. We’re going to be upfront about it and deal with it.”

</snip>

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Saratoga-sheriff-to-discuss-viral-video-5883183.php

A Saratoga County sheriff's sergeant abruptly resigned Monday as he was charged with official misconduct and harassment after a video was posted on the Internet over the weekend that purportedly captured him slapping a man whose car he wanted to search.

Sheriff Michael H. Zurlo said his office began an investigation into the actions of Sgt. Shawn R. Glans immediately after they learned the video was posted on the department's Facebook page around 9 p.m. Friday. The video shows Glans demanding to search the vehicle of a young man, Colin Fitch, who was standing next to the deputy in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store in Halfmoon. Fitch refused to consent to the search as Glans peppered him with expletives and said they could get a search warrant if he didn't turn over his keys.

Glans grows increasingly agitated during the encounter, which was being secretly filmed by Fitch's friend Adam Roberts, who was standing next to the pair. "You want to (expletive) resist?" Glans tells Fitch as the deputy steps toward him and the video captures a loud slapping sound. The video camera was pointed downward at the time of the alleged strike. Glans then grabs Fitch's keys, throwing them to another deputy. "Search the (expletive) car," Glans tells the other deputy, who has not been identified.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141058205

Source: WaPo

Sarah Kemp Brady, the widow of former White House Press Secretary James Brady, died Friday after battling pneumonia, her family said in a statement. She was 73

Sarah Brady became a prominent gun control advocate after her husband was shot during the attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan's life in 1981.

James Brady died in August at age 73.
"Sarah courageously stepped up after Jim was shot to prevent others from enduring what our family has gone through, and her work has saved countless lives," the family's statement read.
"Our nation has lost a great hero, and I have lost a dear friend," Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence President Dan Gross said in a statement. "I am certain that she would want nothing more than to know we are carrying on her and Jim’s legacy with the same fiery compassion and dedication that made her so remarkable."

In 1989, Sarah Brady became affiliated with Handgun Control, Inc., which was renamed the Brady Campaign and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in 2001. She became chair in 1991.
</snip>

http://www.tmz.com/2015/04/01/cynthia-lennon-dead-dies-cancer-john-first-wife-beatles/

John Lennon's first wife Cynthia Lennon ... died at home in Spain after a short battle with cancer. She was 75.
Cynthia and John got married in 1962 .. while she was pregnant -- and she gave birth to Julian Lennon in 1963. He is her only child, and was by her side at her house in Mallorca when she passed away on Wednesday.

</snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/30/theater/gene-saks-actor-and-director-of-stage-and-film-dies-at-93.html?_r=0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Saks

http://www.bustle.com/articles/72515-germanwings-pilot-makes-emotional-speech-before-hamburg-cologne-flight-takes-off

Following the Germanwings crash Tuesday that killed 150 people, boarding another Germanwings plane soon after the disaster sounds a little terrifying. On Wednesday, a Germanwings pilot assured passengers that they’d return home safely on a flight from Hamburg to Cologne. With everyone still disturbed by the plane’s crash into the French Alps the day before, the pilot’s sincerity and candor made one passenger feel much better about the ensuing flight and she posted about the interaction on Germanwings’ Facebook.

In the post, Britta Englisch admits that she had “mixed feelings” about flying with Germanwings the morning after copilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately downed Flight 4U 9525, and she probably wasn’t the only one. There hasn’t been a large commercial airline crash intentionally brought about by the pilot since 1999, and this incident shocked the world.

<snip>

Here is a translation of Englisch’s post to Germanwings’ Facebook: