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Michael King, later known as Martin Luther King, Jr., is born at 501 Auburn Ave. in Atlanta, Georgia. The birth of a hero.
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King begins his freshman year at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
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The Atlanta Constitution publishes King’s letter to the editor stating that black people "are entitled to the basic rights and opportunities of American citizens."
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King and Coretta Scott are married at the Scott home near Marion, Alabama.
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At a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) is formed. King becomes its president.
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According to King’s later account in Stride Toward Freedom, he receives a threatening phone call late in the evening, prompting a spiritual revelation that fills him with strength to carry on in spite of persecution.
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At 9:15 p.m., while King speaks at a mass meeting, his home is bombed. His wife and daughter are not injured. Later King addresses an angry crowd that gathers outside the house, pleading for nonviolence.
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Southern black ministers meet in Atlanta to share strategies in the fight against segregation. King is named chairman of the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration (later known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC).
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King appears on the cover of Time magazine.
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King and Ralph D. Abernathy meet with Vice President Richard M. Nixon and issue a statement on their meeting.
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King and other civil rights leaders meet with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Washington.
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King meets with President John F. Kennedy and urges him to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation to eliminate racial segregation.
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King is arrested at an Albany, Georgia prayer vigil and jailed. After spending two weeks in jail, King is released.
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King, Ralph Abernathy, Albany Movement president William G. Anderson, and other protesters are arrested by Laurie Pritchett during a campaign in Albany, Georgia.
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King meets Malcolm X in Washington, D.C. for the first and only time.
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King publicly reveals his plans to organize a mass civil disobedience campaign, the Poor People's Campaign, in Washington, D.C., to force the government to end poverty.
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King leads a march of six thousand protesters in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. The march descends into violence and looting, and King is rushed from the scene.
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King returns to Memphis, determined to lead a peaceful march. During an evening rally at Mason Temple in Memphis, King delivers his final speech, "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop."
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King is shot and killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
