Andre Hartslief
Did you know that early on the same day that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, he signed legislation that officially started the United States Secret Service, you know the guys that now accompany the president everywhere and are tasked with keeping him safe?
Well, they weren’t initially meant to be important people protectors, they started out as a division of the Department of the Treasury tasked with finding and pulling counterfeit currency from circulation. In fact, it wasn’t until 1901 when President McKinley was assassinated that Congress decided to ask the Secret Service to actually protect future presidents.
In 1902 they took over the full-time responsibility for the life of the President of the United States and they’ve been doing so ever since. How ironic that the group who protects the most powerful person in The United States was created the same day one of America’s greatest presidents was assassinated, I guess the world works in mysterious ways
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Did you know about this?
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Yes
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No I did not know, thanks for the history lesson.
Lincoln’s bodyguard was a polite man, he opened the door to the theater booth and let Booth in. great piece!
President Lincoln didn’t really want to go to the theater that noght, but he went to make his wife happy. Nonetheless, it didn’t quite work out for the best.
This is something new and interesting thing to learn.
I didn’t know it. I thought they were created from the beginning to protect presidents.