Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST, Martin Luther King Jr., the American civil rights activist, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at age 39. The assassin, James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at London's Heathrow Airport and extradited to the United States; on March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.