Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln, attended Harvard College as a young man, where one day he was waiting to catch a commuter ride to Boston. As the train approached, the crowd surged forward and pushed him to the edge of the platform, where he lost his footing and started to fall onto the track.
Fortunately, a pair of strong arms pulled him back to safety. As he turned to thank his rescuer, he recognized the well-known face of the great Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth. Of course, neither knew of the tragic day that lay ahead when Edwin's younger brother, John Wilkes Booth, would become the assassin of the president.On that fateful night at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., Robert was invited but begged off, citing fatigue from a journey. Afterward, he wished he had gone, thinking his presence might have saved his father's life.
The plot thickens. In 1881, President James Garfield made Robert Lincoln his secretary of war. He was with Garfield on July 2, when the president was assassinated by a disappointed office-seeker.
Still later, Robert Lincoln became minister to Great Britain under President McKinley (1897-1901). On September 6, 1901, while in Buffalo, N.Y., McKinley was shot by an anarchist, and once again Robert Lincoln was present.