How did Martin Luther King Jr. die?

Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and fatally wounded by a sniper's bullet while standing on a second floor balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. He was in Memphis to endorse striking sanitation workers.

The bullet hit him in the jaw, severing his spinal cord. He was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. upon his arrival at a nearby hospital. The civil rights leader is widely known for his pursuit of economic and social equality for African Americans. He is perhaps most remembered for his "I Have A Dream" speech given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.