Interactive Timeline: Martin Luther King Jr.

• Martin Luther King Jr. is born on Jan. 15 to the Rev. Martin Luther King and Alberta Williams King in Atlanta.

• MLK graduates from Morehouse College and becomes an ordained Baptist minister.

• MLK attends a lecture by Dr. Mordecai Johnson on the life of Mahatma Gandhi and is inspired to delve deeper in the Indian social philosopher's teachings.

• MLK graduates from Crozer Theological Seminary with a bachelor of divinity degree. He is class valedictorian.
• MLK begins doctoral studies at Boston University.

• MLK marries Coretta Scott in Marion, Ala.

• MLK becomes the 20th pastor of the Dexter Avenue Church in Montgomery.

• MLK receives his Ph.D. from Boston University.
• The Kings' first child, Yolanda Denise (Yoki), is born in November.
• Rosa Parks is arrested for failing to giving up a bus seat to a white man.
• MLK is elected president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association and assumes leadership of the boycott, which will last 381 days.

• A bomb is thrown onto the porch of the King home in Montgomery, but no one is injured.
• MLK is indicted on charges of hindering bus operations.
• The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a district court ruling that racial segregation on Alabama's city bus lines is unconstitutional. Blacks and whites ride the same bus in Montgomery for the first time.

• The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is founded and King is elected its president.
• National Guardsmen escort nine black students to a white school. A thousand paratroopers are sent by President Eisenhower and they stay all year.
• The Civil Rights Commission is created.
• The Kings' second child, Martin Luther III, is born.

• MLK publishes "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story."
• MLK is stabbed in the chest during a book signing in Harlem.

• MLK travels to India to study Gandhi's non-violence techniques.

• The 1960 Civil Rights Act is signed.
• MLK is acquitted on tax evasion charges by an all-white jury in Montgomery.
• During a sit-in in Atlanta, MLK is arrested for trespassing.

• The Kings have a third child, Dexter Scott.
• MLK conducts a demonstration in Albany, Ga, to desegregate public facilities. He is arrested for parading without a permit.

• MLK is arrested at a prayer vigil and jailed on charges of failure to obey an officer, disorderly conduct and obstructing the sidewalk.
• Two are killed when James Meredith attempts to enroll at the University of Mississippi.

• The fourth King child, Bernice Albertine, is born. MLK writes his "Letter From A Birmingham Jail."
• "Strength To Love" is published.
• MLK delivers the "I Have A Dream" speech on the front steps of the Lincoln Memorial with 250,000 people in attendance.
• President Kennedy is assassinated.
• MLK is named Time magazine's Man Of The Year.

• MLK witnesses the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. MLK's "Why We Can't Wait" is published.
• Riots break out in Harlem after a 15-year-old black boy is shot by an off-duty police officer.
• At age 35, MLK wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

• On Feb. 21, Malcolm X is killed.
• More than 3,000 protest marchers leave Selma for a march to Montgomery. Along the way another 25,000 join.
• The 1965 Voting Rights Act is signed.
• Riots break out in Watts and 35 people die.

• MLK rents an apartment in a Chicago ghetto.
• The Supreme Court rules that poll taxes are unconstitutional.
• MLK is pelted with stones at a march in Chicago.

• The 1967 Civil Rights Act fails to pass, but will pass in 1968.
• MLK publishes his final book, "Where Do We Go From Here?" in Jamaica.
• Alabama is ordered to desegregate schools.
• Riots in Newark, N.J., lead to 27 deaths and 725 injuries.
• Carl Stokes is elected major of Cleveland, the first black elected major of a major U.S. city.

• MLK delivers his last speech, "I've Been To The Mountain Top," at Memphis Masonic Temple.
• On April 4, MLK is assassinated by a sniper at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He dies moments later in St. Joseph's Hospital from a gunshot to the neck.
• James Earl Ray is arrested, convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison.