A Timeline of the Life of , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
January 15, 1929 , Martin Luther King Jr. is
born in Atlanta, Georgia.
1948, At the age of 19, King graduates
from Morehouse College with a
B.A. in sociology.
1951, King graduates from Crozer Theological Seminary with a B.Div. degree.
June 18, 1953, King marries Coretta Scott
in Heiberger, Alabama.
June 6, 1955 , Dr. King receives his Ph.D. degree in systematic theology at Boston University.
December 1, 1955 , Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat
on a Montgomery city bus, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.
Dr. King leads the 385-day boycott, enduring arrest and a house bombing, resulting in the end of racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses.
September 20, 1958 , Dr. King is stabbed in the chest by a mentally ill woman
in a Harlem department store during a book signing.
April, 1963 , Dr. King is arrested for the 13th time during
the Birmingham campaign. He composes his
famous Letter from Birmingham Jail.
August 28, 1963 , Dr. King delivers his iconic "I Have a Dream"
speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
during the March on Washington.
The speech helped the passage
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
October 14, 1964 , Dr. King is awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize.
March 25, 1965, During the march from Selma to Montgomery, King declared, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.".
April 15, 1967 , King speaks against the Vietnam War, stating, "I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights movement imbued into the peace movement.".
April 4, 1968, Dr. King is assassinated by James Earl Ray
at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN