Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated in Memphis

Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had traveled to support a sanitation workers' strike. He died at St. Joseph's Hospital. James Earl Ray was arrested and convicted. Uprisings erupted in over 100 U.S. cities; 46 people died. The assassination directly accelerated passage of the Fair Housing Act.