The major event associated with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln is his murder on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was shot while attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. His assassination occurred just days after the Confederacy surrendered, marking the end of the American Civil War. This act was motivated by Booth's beliefs that Lincoln was destroying the South and undermining the Confederate cause. Lincoln's death had profound implications for the Reconstruction era and the future of the nation, resulting in a power struggle and significant changes in policy.