Highlights of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

January 15, 1929 -- Born in Atlanta
1944-1948 -- Attended Morehouse College, Atlanta
1953 -- Married Coretta Scott
1954 -- Ordained Baptist minister
December 1, 1955 -- Led Montgomery bus boycott to force desegregation of city's buses
1957 -- Founded and was named president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
1960 -- Became co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta
August 28, 1963 -- Delivered "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington
1964 -- Awarded Nobel peace prize
February 1, 1965 -- Arrested with 2,600 other blacks in Selma, Alabama, during a voting rights demonstration
April 4, 1968 -- Slain in Memphis by James Earl Ray; died the same day

Sources: 1996 Information Please Almanac; Webster's New Biographical Dictionary.

AP and Reuters contributed to this report.