4 April 1968 Martin Luther King assassinated

He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. King was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05PM that evening.  James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime.

On March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary, but later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and be tried by a jury. These were unsuccessful and  he died in prison on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70.