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Maya Angelou is born in St. Louis, MO and was originally given the name Marguerite Annie Johnson.
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Maya is raped and becomes mute out of fear for about five years as a result.
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After the trauma, Maya is finally able to get her speech back through help of her English teacher. She is also encouraged by her to pursue literature.
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Maya drops out of high school to become San Francisco's first African-American female cable car conductor. She then went back to high school, but had to quickly resign again after having her first child, Guy.
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Maya became the Northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference When Martin Luther King Jr. asked her to do so.
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Maya moved to Cairo with a guy she met before moving to Ghana.
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Maya returns to the United States to help Malcolm X build an African-American Unity organization.
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I Know Why the Caged Bird is published.
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Maya receives the Langston Hughes Medal.
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Maya receives the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Association National award.
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Maya receives the Mother Theresa award.
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Maya Angelou dies at the age of 86 in Winston-Salem, NC.