In Washington, D.C. on June 9, 1893, the interior of ramshackle
Ford’s Theatre collapses, causing the deaths of 22 people.
The building—where President Lincoln was shot on April 14,
1865— houses hundreds of clerks employed by the War
Department’s Records and Pensions Division.
An investigation determined the cause of the tragedy was a pier
that had given way during excavation in the basement for an
electric-light plant.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)
A National Historic Site, Ford’s Theatre today.