King is fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. A sniper's bullet struck him in the jaw & severed his spinal cord.
A Remington .30-06 hunting rifle was found on the sidewalk beside a rooming house one block away.
King was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis hospital. He was 39 years old.
As word spread, riots broke out in cities all across the U.S. The National Guard troops were deployed in Memphis & Washington, D.C.
The rifle, eyewitness reports, & fingerprints all implicated a single suspect: escaped convict James Earl Ray. Ray confessed in order to avoid the electric chair. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison.