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Today the nation celebrates the birth of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was born Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta. King, who would have been 75 this year, was killed by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968, in Memphis at the age of 39. Those are facts that almost everyone knows about the civil rights leader. But some aspects of his childhood and youth aren't major highlights in movies and books about King's life. Here are just a few things to know about the child and the teen who grew into the man who won a Nobel Peace Prize.
* Martin Luther King's name was initially Michael, just like his father's. But in 1934, his father, who had visited the birthplace of Protestantism in Germany and greatly admired Martin Luther, changed his name and that of his oldest son from Michael to Martin Luther King. For a while, some people still referred to him as Little Mike.
* King, his older sister Christine, and younger brother Alfred Daniel, loved a good prank, like most kids. They sometimes took their grandmother's fur piece, which had a head with beady eyes, and tied it to a stick. As they hid behind bushes in front of their home, they would dangle the fur in front of people as they passed by to startle them.
* King skipped the second and ninth grades and graduated from high school at age 15.
* Although he was a junior, that is not what his family called him. He was known as M.L. His brother's nickname was A.D.; he was named after their grandfather, Alfred Daniel Williams.
* When some white friends who always played at the King house suddenly could no longer visit King and his siblings, their mother, Alberta Williams King told them about laws in the 1930s that kept African-Americans separate from whites. It was that event, his family and most historians say, that set him on the path to fight for civil rights.
* In April 1944, King and one of his teachers, Sarah Bradley, traveled by bus to Dublin, Ga., where he delivered the speech "The Negro and the Constitution" in an oratory contest sponsored by the Negro Elks Society. He won the contest, but on the return trip he and his teacher were forced to stand when more white passengers got on the bus. When King didn't move quickly enough, the driver hurled insults at them, and the teacher implored King to get up. "That night will never leave my memory," he said later. "It was the angriest I have ever been in my life."
* Although his mother and father bought books for all their children, they also wanted them to appreciate the value of working for the things they wanted. As a youngster, King worked a paper route, delivering the Atlanta Journal. He used his money to buy books.
* After graduating from high school, King went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, the college his father and his grandfather had attended. While there he was a member of the glee club and chorus and participated in oratorical contests. King also earned a new nickname, "Tweed," because of the suits that he liked to wear.
* Although he was raised in the church - his father and grandfather were preachers - King thought he could better serve others by becoming a doctor or lawyer. But the pull of the pulpit was too great. One of his Morehouse teachers encouraged him, telling him that a minister could create social change.
* King received his license to preach when he was 18.
- Sources: Detroit Free Press interview with Christine King Farris, author of My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up With the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Simon & Schuster, 2003); Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project, Stanford University; Martin Luther King Jr. by Marshall Frady (Viking Press, 2002); the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr.; The King Center; Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Leader by Kathy Kristensen Lambert (Chelsea House Publishers, 1993); I Have A Dream: The Life and Words of Martin Luther King Jr. by Jim Haskins (Millbrook Press, 1992).