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Today in History, April 4th

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Plus the signing of the NATO treaty and the founding of Microsoft.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published April 4, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

April 4 is best known as the day in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The date also saw 12 nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty that created NATO in 1949 and Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in 1975.

The big story: Martin Luther King Jr. Is Assassinated (1968)

Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis in the spring of 1968 to back the city’s striking sanitation workers. A march he led there on March 28 had broken down into violence, and he left promising to return. On the evening of April 3 he gave what became known as his “Mountaintop” speech. Just after 6 p.m. the next day, April 4, he was standing on the balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel when a sniper’s bullet hit him. He died at a Memphis hospital. He was 39. Riots broke out in cities across the country, and National Guard troops were sent into Memphis and Washington, D.C. The evidence, including a rifle left near a rooming house a block away, pointed to escaped convict James Earl Ray. He was arrested in London in June, pleaded guilty in March 1969 and was sentenced to 99 years. Days later he tried to take back the plea, claiming he was innocent. A House committee later concluded that Ray fired the shot, while allowing that a small conspiracy was possible.

More events on April 4

Year	What happened
1841	President William Henry Harrison died after 32 days in office, the shortest presidency in U.S. history.
1933	The Navy airship USS Akron, the largest built in the U.S. up to then, crashed off New Jersey, killing 73 people.
1949	The United States and 11 other nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the NATO alliance.
1960	Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards, a record at the time.
1967	Exactly one year before his death, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam War in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech at Riverside Church in New York.
1973	The World Trade Center’s Twin Towers officially opened in New York City as the tallest buildings in the world.
1974	On opening day, Hank Aaron hit his first swing of the season over the wall to tie Babe Ruth’s career home run record. He broke it four days later.
1975	Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
2013	Film critic Roger Ebert, the first person to win a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism, died at 70.
2023	Donald Trump was arraigned in Manhattan on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, becoming the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges.

Born on April 4

1802: Dorothea Dix, American reformer who fought for better care of people with mental illness and served as a Civil War nurse.
1928: Maya Angelou, American poet and author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
1965: Robert Downey Jr., American actor known for playing Iron Man and for his Oscar-winning role in Oppenheimer.