Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
King was a Baptist minister and activist who became the most
visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement
from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
King was a Baptist minister and activist who became the most
visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement
from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
Three days after his assassination in Dallas, Texas, John F.
Kennedy was laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington
National Cemetery in Virginia.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)
CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite announces the death of President
John F. Kennedy.
Comedy legend Mel Brooks (Melvyn Kaminsky) is 94 years old
today. He became one of the most successful film directors of
the 1970s.
1974
James Earl Ray, suspect in the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.
is arrested.
James Earl Ray, an escaped American convict, is arrested in London,
England, and charged with the assassination of African American civil
rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, King was fatally wounded by a sniper’s
bullet while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at
the Motel Lorraine. That evening, a Remington .30-06 hunting rifle was
found on the sidewalk beside a rooming house one block from the
Lorraine Motel. During the next several weeks, the rifle, eyewitness
reports, and fingerprints on the weapon all implicated a single suspect:
escaped convict James Earl Ray. A two-bit criminal, Ray escaped a
Missouri prison in April 1967 while serving a sentence for a holdup. In
May 1968, a massive manhunt for Ray began. The FBI eventually
determined that he had obtained a Canadian passport under a false
identity, which at the time was relatively easy.
James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998)