Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2018: 10 Facts About The Non-Violent Activist

Monday, Jan. 15 is a day celebrated and devoted to the civil rights pioneer and one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century popularly known for his 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech —Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday which is observed every year on the third Monday of January to honor the nonviolent activist. Thousands of Americans reminisce watching “Our Friend, Martin” — an animated children's educational film about Martin Luther King Jr.

So, this Monday take some time out and learn a few things about the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Here is a list of 10 little-known facts collected about Martin Luther King Jr.

1. Martin Luther King Jr. was originally named Micheal instead of Martin. His father’s name was Michael King, however, after a trip to Germany in 1931, Michael King Sr. changed his own name in homage to historic German theologian Martin Luther thus changing his two-year-old son’s name to Martin Luther as well.

2. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to be a pastor and attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.

3. At the age of 12, he allegedly tried to kill himself. It was in the year 1941 after his grandmother died of heart attack. When he learned about his grandmother’s sudden death, King went upstairs and jumped from the second story window of his house.

4. Martin Luther King Jr. went to college at age 15 and became a minister at 19. He had his doctorate degree by age 25.

5. Over the course of his life of 39 years, he was arrested 30 times. One of his arrests was for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone with three friends in the car after which authorities put him in jail.

6. He survived his first assassination attempt. The man who attacked him was identified as Izola Ware Curry, who the Huffington Post reported was mentally ill. Curry thought that Martin Luther King Jr. and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) were tracking him in the 1950s. Thereafter, at a New York City book signing in 1958, Curry walked up to Martin Luther King Jr. and stabbed him with a letter opener.

7. King, after getting out of the hospital, publically forgave Curry and said in a news conference: “I feel no ill-will toward Mrs. Izola Curry and know that thoughtful people will do all in their power to see that she gets the help she apparently needs if she is to become a free and constructive member of society.”

8. He was the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize when he won it aged 35. That record was broken in 2014 by a 17-year-old activist named Malala Yousafzai.

9. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a single bullet fired at a Memphis hotel by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968.

10. King was not the only one who died that night. After King’s assassination, one of the hotel workers, Lorraine Bailey (who was also the wife of the hotel owner and who it was named after), upon seeing King get shot, had a heart attack and later died from this.