Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! This federal holiday marking the birth of the leader of the Civil Rights Movement is observed on the third Monday in January. It occurs near but not always on his birthday, which is January 15.<\/p>\n
Here are some fascinating facts about Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/p>\n
<\/a>When he was born in 1929, his name was not Martin. He was born as Michael King, Jr. When his father, Michael senior, traveled to Germany, he learned more about Protestant reformer Martin Luther. Upon his return home, Michael King, Sr. changed both his name and his son’s name from Michael to Martin Luther.<\/p>\n King’s “I Have a Dream” speech that he delivered on August 28, 1963, at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is perhaps his most famous. The working title for it was “Normalcy — Never Again.”<\/p>\n That day was not the first time that King used the phrase “I have a dream.” He employed it speeches in Chicago a week before the March on Washington and in Detroit two months prior to that.<\/p>\n The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial<\/a> was designed so that the statue of Dr. King looks directly at the Lincoln Memorial, where he delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech.<\/p>\n