Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American criminal best known for being convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty plea—thus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentence—and was sentenced to 99 years of Imprisonment. After he was "rearrested" in 1969, Another 1 year is added to his imprisonment, making it 100 years in jail.