- 1929Born on January 15 to the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr.and Alberta Williams King
- 1944Began his studies at Morehouse College at the age of 15
- 1948Entered Crozer Theological Seminary for three years
- 1951Began his graduate studies at Boston University
- 1953Martin Luther King marries Coretta Scott at her parent’s home in Alabama
- 1955Received his PhD in Systematic Theology from Boston College
- 1955Led the Montgomery bus boycott based on the experience of Rosa Parks
- 1956Bus segregation has been ruled illegal by the Supreme Court
- 1959Went to India and met with the family of Mahatma Gandhi
- 1960Became co-pastor with his father at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta
- 1960Was arrested for a sit-in at a restaurant in Greensboro, NC
- 1961Based on MLK’s work, the Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in interstate travel.
- 1963King writes his famous Letter from Birmingham jail after being arrested.
- 1963On June 23, he led a group of 125,000 people in a Freedom Walk in Detroit
- 1963On August 28 he joins more than 250,000 people in the March on Washington and delivers the famous “I Have a Dream” speech
- 1964MLK Jr. is the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peach Prize
- 1966King begins to focus on other social issues starting with the March Against Fear
- 1968Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.
- 1986President Reagan signs a law declaring the third Monday in January Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday.