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Michael King is born in Atlanta. His father changes the boy’s name, as well as his own, to Martin Luther King several years later.
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King enrolls at Morehouse College after passing the entrance exam at age 15.
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The Atlanta Constitution publishes a letter to the editor from King supporting minority rights.
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King is ordained and becomes assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, his father’s church.
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King graduates from Morehouse College with bachelor’s degree in sociology.
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King enters Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa.
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King graduates from Crozer with bachelor of divinity degree. He delivers valedictory address.
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King begins graduate studies in systematic theology at Boston University’s School of Theology.
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King meets Coretta Scott in Boston.
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King and Coretta Scott are married near Marion, Ala. King’s father officiates at the service.
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King begins his pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.
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King earns doctorate from Boston University.
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King is named president of the Montgomery Improvement Association.
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King’s home is bombed while he is speaking at a meeting. His wife and daughter are unharmed.
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King is named chairman of what becomes the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
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King appears on the cover of Time magazine.
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King delivers his first national address, “Give Us the Ballot,” at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
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King and other civil rights leaders meet with President Dwight Eisenhower in Washington.
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At a book signing in Harlem, King is stabbed with a letter opener by a mentally ill woman. Doctors remove the seven-inch blade from his chest.
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King moves from Montgomery to Atlanta to focus on the civil rights struggle.
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King is arrested at a sit-in demonstration at an Atlanta department store. He is sentenced to four months of hard labor — for violating a suspended sentence in a 1956 traffic violation. He is released on $2,000 bond.
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King and hundreds of others are arrested in desegregation campaign in Albany, Ga.
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King is arrested at a prayer vigil in Albany and spends two weeks in jail. He leaves Aug. 10.
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A member of the American Nazi Party hits King in the face twice at an SCLC conference in Birmingham.
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After being arrested for ignoring an Alabama state court injunction against demonstrations, King writes his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail, a defense of nonviolent resistance to racism.
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King delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial as more than 200,000 demonstrators take part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
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Four girls are killed when a bomb explodes at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
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King delivers eulogy for three of the slain girls.
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Time magazine names King “Man of the Year” for 1963.
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King and 17 others are jailed for trespassing after demanding service at a whites-only restaurant in St. Augustine, Fla.
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King wins Nobel Peace Prize.
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After voting rights marchers are attacked and beaten by police in Selma, Ala., King peacefully leads civil rights marchers from Selma to Montgomery.
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Rioting in the Watts section of Los Angeles leads King to address economic inequality.
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King gives his first speech against the Vietnam War.
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King and his wife move into a Chicago slum apartment to demand better housing and education in northern U.S. cities.
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In speech at a New York City church, King demands U.S. make greater effort to end Vietnam War.
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King unveils plans for a Poor People’s Campaign, a mass civil disobedience protest, for the spring in Washington. It was intended as an expansion of his civil rights activities into the area of economic rights.
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King leads 6,000 protesters in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. The march ends with violence and looting.
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King returns to Memphis, intending to lead a peaceful march. At an evening rally, he delivers his final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
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King is shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
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King is buried in Atlanta.