Facts you may not know about Martin Luther King, Jr

Did you know?

• Martin Luther King, Jr was the youngest person at the time to receive a Nobel Peace Prize? He was just 35.

• He is the only non-president to have a national holiday in his name. He is also the only non president with a memorial in the National Mall in Washington, DC.

• He was the first black person to be named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1963.

• A woman nearly assassinated him 10 years before his death by sticking a letter opener in his chest - he spent several hours in surgery and barely made it out alive. He issued a statement that he felt no anger or ill will towards the woman.

• His mother was also murdered by a gunman. He was given the death penalty but it was later changed to life in prison because King’s family did not believe in capital punishment.

• He was born with the name Michael, but after his father, a minister, visited Germany, he was inspired by the Protestant leader Martin Luther, and he changed his own name and the name of 5 year old MLK,Jr.

*these facts were gathered from CultureTrip.com and HISTORY.com articles by Alexia Wulff and Christopher Klein