John Wilkes Booth

About John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth (1838–1865) was an American stage actor and extremist best known for assassinating President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. This singular, monumental act of political violence defines his historical footprint, securing him a significant rank of #584 in MIT's Pantheon project, which measures long-term global cultural influence across eras and languages. His life was tragically brief, ending just days after the act while he was on the run.

Despite this high historical importance, Booth's modern internet attention is relatively low, garnering only 1.2 million annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This places him in a category of 'under-attended' figures when compared to contemporaries who did not fundamentally alter the course of American history. For context, the much less historically important (HPI #992) Al Capone commanded 2.5 million views in the same year, highlighting a notable 3x overattention gap for the infamous gangster relative to Booth’s ranking.

Furthermore, the declining trend in his online presence suggests a slow fade; his 2025 Wikipedia viewership was down 37.0% year-over-year, and his quarterly momentum saw a slight -3% dip between Q1 and Q3, indicating that this pivotal figure from the [American Revolution for kids](link_placeholder) era is not retaining contemporary digital focus.