Before the 20th century, there wasn't much of a priority placed on presidential protection.

Some presidents had private security, others relied on the local police or the military.

What some people find hard to believe, though, is that many of them had no security.

Thomas Jefferson was known to walk to events on his own, with no security.

Martin Van Buren walked to church every Sunday alone.

Someone had fired two shots at Andrew Jackson and missed, but the idea that the president would be a major target for attack wasn't really considered.

When Abraham Lincoln went to the Ford Theater to see a play, one police

officer was tasked with protecting him, but that officer had left his post to be able to also watch

the play. After Lincoln's assassination, the Secret Service was founded, but even then, that had nothing

to do with protecting the president.

Originally, the Secret Service was solely tasked with fighting counterfeiting. It wasn't until two

more presidents were assassinated, James Garfield in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901,

that the Secret Service was assigned to protect the President at all times.

But this story takes us back long before anyone thought to keep around the clock security

on the President of the United States.

On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln went to the Ford Theater just blocks

away from the White House to see a play called Our American Cousin.

He would tell his speaker of the house that he didn't really want to go, but he had promised his wife, Mary.

It said that Lincoln was enjoying the play until about 10.15 p.m. when a man who had performed as an actor in that very theater

snuck into the president's box and shot him in the back of the head. That would turn out to be

the first U.S. presidential assassination, but it would ultimately lead to another first, which was

just as deadly. Lincoln's assassination would lead to the first woman to be executed in the

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