January 15 – Michael Luther King Jr. (later known as Martin Luther King Jr.) is born in Atlanta, Georgia to Baptist minister Michael Luther King and schoolteacher Alberta King.
1932
January – King begins nursery school.
1933
Fall – Kings begins first grade.
1934
January – After King’s teacher discovers that he is only five years old, he is expelled from school.
1935
September – King begins second grade.
1942
King begins high school.
1944
September - King begins attending Morehouse College in Atlanta.
1948
February 25 – King is appointed to serve as the assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
June 8 – King graduates from Morehouse with a B.A. in sociology.
September 14 – King begins attending Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.
1951
May – Graduates from Crozer with a bachelor of divinty.
September – Begins studying systematic theology as a graduate student at Boston University.
1953
June 18 – King and Coretta Scott marry at her parent’s home in Marion, Alabama.
1954
September 1 – King is appointed pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
1955
June – King earns his Ph.D.
November 17 – Yoland Denise, King’s first child, is born.
December 1 – Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give her seat on the bus to a white passenger.
December 5 – King becomes the president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association. The Montgomery bus boycott begins.
1956
January 30 – King’s house is bombed.
December 21 – The Montgomery buses are desegregated.
1957
January – The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is formed, and King becomes the president.
February 18 – King is on the cover of Time magazine.
March 6 – Visits Ghana in West Africa.
May 17 – At the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial, King’s delivers his first national address entitled, “Give Us The Ballot.”
October 23 – King’s second child, Martin Luther King III is born.
1958
June 23 – King meets with President Eisenhower.
September – King’s book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story is published.
September 20 – King is stabbed by a woman while at a book signing in Harlem, New York.
1959
February – King visits India for a month.
1960
February – King and his family move to Atlanta where he serves as assistant pastor to his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
October 19 – King is arrested at a sit-in in Atlanta.
1961
January 31 – King’s third child, Dexter is born.
October 16 – King meets with President Kennedy to gain his support for the civil rights movement.
December 16 – King and other protesters are arrested in Albany, Georgia.
1963
King’s second book, Strength to Love is published.
March 28 – King’s fourth child, Bernice Albertine is born.
April – King is arrested after demonstrating in Birmingham, Alabama. While in jail, King writes the widely circulated, “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”
August 28 – King speaks at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial where he delivers his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
1964
January 18 – King meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson
March 26 – After King’s press conference, he meets Malcolm X.
June – King’s third book, Why We Can’t Wait is published.
June 11 – King is arrested in St. Augustine, Florida for attempting to eat in a white-only restaurant.
December 10 – Wins the Noble Peace Prize.
1965
March 17 – 25 – King and other protestors march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights.
1966
June 7 - After James Meredith is shot and wounded, King, Floyd McKissick, and Stokely Carmichael resume Meridith’s “March Against Fear” from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi.
1967
June – King’s fourth book, Where Do We Go From Here? is published.
1968
March 28 – King leads striking sanitation workers in a march in Memphis, Tennessee. The march erupts in violence.
April 3 – Back in Memphis to lead another march with sanitation workers, at a rally at Mason Temple, King delivers his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
April 4 - While standing on the balcony of his motel, King is shot and killed.
April 9 – Buried in Atlanta.
