The America of Lincoln and the Civil War can feel like distant history, but every now and then, through the appearance of what Jason Kottke has called a "human wormhole," we are confronted with the brevity of a century and a half.

The above video captures this phenomenon succinctly. Here is a man, elderly but still kicking, who witnessed the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Yet his setting -- the 1950s/1960s game show "I've Got a Secret" -- is completely recognizable as a modern media production. Sure, it's not in color, the hairstyles are a bit outdated, and a cigarette advertisement is prominently displayed, but those are subtle changes when compared with those this man saw in his lifetime.

Update 11:35 a.m.: Via Jason Gilbert, here is the newspaper article mentioned in the video.