CNN news 2015-04-21 加文本

cnn news 2015-04-21

CARL AZUZ, HOST: Fridays are what?

Awesome.

Welcome to your April 17th edition of cnn STUDENT NEWS.

My name is Carl Azuz.

March 10, 2014, was the first time we reported on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It had vanished two days earlier in flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China.

More than a year after that, officials say they`ve covered most of the priority search zone in the Southern Indian Ocean. Still no sign of the aircraft and its 239 passengers and crew. Authorities say if they haven`t found anything by the time they finish the current search area, they`ll double it in size to an area bigger than the state of Pennsylvania and keep on looking.

Government officials from Malaysia, China and Australia say they`re committed to finding out what happened to Flight 370 and bringing closure to the families and loved ones of those aboard.

It was another week of good news/bad news for SpaceX, a private space exploration company that has a $1.6 billion contract from NASA.

The good news -- it got an unmanned spacecraft off the ground and into orbit this week. It`s headed for the International Space Station, bringing along supplies, research equipment and an espresso machine for astronauts. SpaceX is trying to perfect a reusable rocket, one that softly lands on a platform in the ocean after getting the cargo ship into orbit.

The bad news -- it will have to keep trying. The one that launched on Tuesday reportedly made it to the platform but then tipped over and exploded. A similar incident happened in January, but SpaceX isn`t giving up, hoping one day to land rockets back on the ground if they master landings at sea.

This month marks a couple of major events in U.S. Civil War history. On April 9, 1965, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his 28,000 remaining troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. It was the end of major hostilities in the War Between the States, though some skirmishes and additional Confederate surrenders continued afterward.

Five days after Lee`s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. His legacy is still very much alive in America.

JAKE TAPPER, cnn ANCHOR (voice-over): The bells of Washington, DC tolled to remember Lincoln. It was 150 years ago when this nation lost President Abraham Lincoln to an assassin`s bullet. The man who held the Union together and freed the slaves still captivates us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you all have tickets?

TAPPER: His legacy drives sales -- books, movies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LINCOLN," COURTESY DREAMWORKS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

TAPPER: Decades later, the silk has worn, but his hat remains instantly recognizable to thousands of tourists flocking here to buy

tickets to get a glimpse of where it all happened, in Washington, DC`s Ford`s Theatre.

PAUL TETREAULT, FORD`S THEATRE DIRECTOR: Most people don`t realize that it was John Wilkes Booth and a handful of his colleagues and friends, they were going to kill the vice -- the president, the vice president and secretary of State and really this -- their concept was take down the entire Union government and hopefully the South would rise again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP COURTESY FORD`S THEATRE SOCIETY)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had an ax put into my hands at once.

TAPPER: Today, Ford`s Theatre is equal parts playhouse, museum and shrine. Paul Tetreault is the director and something of a historian. We asked him how the assassin got so close to the president.

TETREAULT: John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor of the time. I mean I often tell people today, imagine, you know, if Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp went after the president.

TAPPER: The president`s valet actually let Booth into the president`s box. Booth squeezed the trigger on this single shot Derringer pistol and shot Lincoln in the back of the head.

TETREAULT: This was the bloody knife that he had cut Major Rathbone. He held that up when he landed on stage and yelled, "Sic semper tyrannis," which, of course, is thus always to tyrants. That`s the actual knife.

TAPPER: Lincoln was taken across the street to The Petersen House. He never regained consciousness.

TETREAULT: Why does every presidential candidate running, why does every president wrap themself in Abraham Lincoln?

Because he still matters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Abraham Lincoln.

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Abraham Lincoln.

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Abraham Lincoln.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Land of Lincoln.

TETREAULT: Everyone wants to follow in his footsteps.

TAPPER: Lincoln`s words and ideas and memory still hold and form us and shape us and likely will for the next 150 years, as well.