Monday, January 15th 2018, MLK would have been 89 years old.

• Dr. King At Press Conference

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  American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) speaks at a press conference for Clergy & Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, held at the Belmont Plaza Hotel, New York City, January 12, 1968. He announced the Poor People's March On Washington at this event. (Photo by John Goodwin/Getty Images)

• Civil Rights Leaders Meet With John F. Kennedy

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  28th August 1963: American president John F. Kennedy in the White House with leaders of the civil rights 'March on Washington' (left to right) Whitney Young, Dr Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968), Rabbi Joachim Prinz, A. Philip Randolph, President Kennedy, Walter Reuther (1907 - 1970) and Roy Wilkins. Behind Reuther is Vice-President Lyndon Johnson. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

• Luther Kings

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  March 1965: Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) and his wife Coretta Scott King lead a civil rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery. On the left (holding bottle) is American diplomat Ralph Bunche (1904 - 1971). (Photo by William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images)
• Martin Luther King

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  Dr Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968), American clergyman and civil rights campaigner. (Photo by William Lovelace/Getty Images)

• King In London

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  21st September 1964: Martin Luther King Jnr (1929 - 1968), American clergyman and leader of the civil rights movement, giving a press conference at the Savoy Hotel in London. (Photo by Roger Jackson/Central Press/Getty Images)

• King In London

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  October 1961: American civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) arriving at London Airport. He is in England to be the chief speaker at a public meeting about colour prejudice and to appear on the BBC television programme 'Face To Face'. (Photo by J. Wilds/Keystone/Getty Images)
• Martin Luther King

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  September 1964: American clergyman and civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968). (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

• Man With A Dream

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  1963: American civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King Jr (1929 - 1968) at a press reception at the Ritz Hotel, London, England. (Photo by William H. Alden/Evening Standard/Getty Images)

• Martin Luther King In London

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  American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968) at a press conference in London, September 1964.(Photo by Reg Lancaster/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Watch Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have A Dream’ Speech:

Below are some things you may not have known about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

1. His name was originally Michael, not Martin.  His father was also Michael King, hence why Martin Luther King Jr. was originally named Michael King Jr. (source)
2. King Jr. skipped two grades in high school, 9th and 11th, and entered college (Moorehouse College) at the tender age of 15 in 1944.  By 19, he received a bachelor’s degree in sociology. (source)
3. His honeymoon was spent at a funeral parlor… not because someone died, simply because a friend owned the parlor and offered to let him use it for his honeymoon. (source)
4. King is to date the youngest male to win a Nobel Peace Prize, winning it in 1964 at the age of 35 (at the time he was the youngest overall for the Peace Prize).  The youngest ever to win the Peace prize today is Malala Yousafzai who won it in 2014 at the age of 17. (source)
5. Today over 700 streets in the United States are named after Martin Luther King Jr., with one such street in almost every major city.  This is not even counting the amazing number of buildings, schools, and the like named after him. (source)
6. Martin Luther King Jr. was nearly assassinated a decade earlier than his ultimate death.  While on a book tour, signing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom, on September 20, 1958, King was approached by Izola Ware Curry who asked him if he was Martin Luther King Jr., which he of course replied affirmatively. (source)
7. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech was not his first at the Lincoln Memorial. (source)
8. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed 29 times. (source)
9. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mother was also slain by a bullet. (source)
10. Martin Luther King Jr. received his doctorate in systematic theology. (source)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Iconic Quotes:

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  MLK Quote:1 "True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice." —from Stride Toward Freedom, 1958

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  MLK Quote #2: "Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals." —from “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart,” August 30, 1959

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  MLK Quote #3: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.” —from ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail,’ April 16, 1963
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  MLK Quote #4: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." —from ‘Letter from Birmingham, Alabama Jail’, April 16, 1963

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  MLK Quote #5: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." —from "I Have A Dream" speech, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963

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  MLK Quote #6: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." —from Strength to Love, 1963
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  MLK Quote #7: "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." —from Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964

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  MLK Quote #8: “The time is always right to do what is right.” —from Oberlin College Commencement speech, 1965

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  MLK Quote #9: “The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.” —from "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" 1967
• Martin Luther King Jr DR SW

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  MLK Quote #10: “Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.” —from speech before a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia, October 26, 1967

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  MLK Quote #11: “For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.” —from “I've Been To The Mountain Top,” April 3, 1968

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  MLK Quote #12: "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountaintop . . .I've looked over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land." —from “I've Been To The Mountain Top,” April 3, 1968

Quote sources.