I'm sure I'd heard this somewhere before, but it was as I was reading Chernow's Grant biography during the last couple weeks that the fact struck me that President Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, 1865. The president was out at Ford's Theater watching a comedy, Our American Cousin.
I often think of the past as having been more religious, and less inclined towards everything being open all the time despite holidays or holy days. Thus, it seemed odd at first that Washington DC's high society was all out watching a farce on the evening of Good Friday. But then, of course, the it's not necessarily the case that the past was more religious than the present, and also celebration of Good Friday as a solemn day is fairly uneven among different Protestant denominations and at different times.
Regardless, God rest the soul of one of our greatest American presidents.
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