Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College at age 19 with a degree in sociology. He received a PhD from Boston University and became a Baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955-1956 and wrote his influential book "Stride Toward Freedom". He continued his civil rights work throughout the 1960s, delivering his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington in 1963. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968 while supporting a sanitation workers' strike.

2. 1929 Martin Luther King , is born in Atlanta to teacher Alberta King and Baptist minister Michael Luther King.

3. 1944 Martin Luther King Graduates high school at age 15, enters Morehouse College shortly there after.

4. 1948 Martin Luther King Receives BA in sociology from Morehouse College at age 19.

5. 1951 Receives degree from Crozer Theological Seminary (Chester, Pa.), enrolls in Boston University PhD program.

6. 1953 Martin Luther king Marries New England Conservatory music student Coretta Scott; they eventually have four children

7. 1954 Martin becomes minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama.

8. 1955 He receives PhD in systematic theology from Boston University

9. 1956 King's house is bombed

10. 1957 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prompts Montgomery to desegregate buses.

11. 1958 He Writes Stride Toward Freedom, about the bus boycott

12. 1959 Visits India to study nonviolence and civil disobedience.

13. 1960 Joins his father as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta

14. 1961 In November, the Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation in interstate travel due to work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Freedom Riders.

15. 1962 During the unsuccessful Albany, Georgia movement, King is arrested on July 27 and jailed.

16. 1963 The March on Washington held August 28 is the largest civil rights demonstration in history with nearly 250,000 people in attendance. At the march, King makes his famous I Have a Dream speech.

17. 1964 On January 3, King appears on the cover of Time magazine as its Man of the Year. King attends the signing ceremony of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at the White House on July 2.

18. 1965 On February 2, King is arrested in Selma, Alabama during a voting rights demonstration. After President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, Martin Luther King, Jr. turns to economic problems.

19. 1966 On January 22, King moves into a Chicago slum tenement to attract attention to the living conditions of the poor.

20. 1967 The Supreme Court upholds a conviction of MLK by a Birmingham court for demonstrating without a permit. King spends four days in Birmingham jail.

21. 1968 King announces that the Poor People's Campaign will culminate in a March on Washington demanding a $12 billion Economic Bill of Rights guaranteeing employment to the able-bodied, incomes to those unable to work, and an end to housing discrimination.

22. 1986 Within a week of the assassination, the Open Housing Act is passed by Congress. 1986 On November 2, a national holiday is proclaimed in King's honor.