One of the most vital figures of the modern era, who sparked the conscience of generations and provoked changes in the fabric of American life, Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4 April 1968.

He was instrumental in leading the mass struggle for racial equality and ridding the nation of sickening racist segregation laws.

His historic “I Have a Dream” speech, made in 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington , was witnessed by over 200,000 civil rights supporters and became a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

A year later, at the age of 35, Mr King became the youngest man ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and donated the prize money towards the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on 15 January 1929, the first son born to Alabama pastor Rev Martin Luther King Sr. and his wife Alberta Williams King.

When his brother accidentally knocked his grandmother out by sliding down a banister,13 year-old King thought she was dead and tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a window, only to land unhurt.

Mr King was a gifted academic, graduating two years early from college and then completing another degree, before going onto receiving over 20 honoury degrees from universities all over the world during his life.

Triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks , who had refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white man, in 1955 Mr King led a protest which ultimately suceeded in forcing the United States Supreme Court to outlaw racial segregation on all public transport.

By the end of the sixties his focus had shifted from civil rights to anti-war radicalism, but he found that his message of non-violent, peaceful protest was not shared by many members of the younger generation.

Mr King was assassinated on 4 April 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, leading to a nationwide wave of riots in more than 60 cities across America.

A crowd of 300,000 devotees attended his funeral service and Martin Luther King Day was established by President Ronald Reagan as one of only three federal holidays to commemorate a person.

Escaped convict James Earl Ray was sentenced to 99 years in jail for Mr King's murder, but later retracted his confession and still maintains his innocence to this day.

Various conspiracy theories exist surrounding the assasination and even Mr King’s son, Dexter Scott King, has gone a record as saying that he doesn’t believe Ray was the assassin after meeting with him in person in 1997.

Throughout the course of his 13 years of political activity, he was stabbed in the chest, physically attacked several times, his home was bombed three times and he was thrown into jail 14 times.

Martin Luther King has been voted 6th in the Person of the Century poll by Time Magazine and as of 2006, more than 730 cities in the United States had streets named after him.

Talking about his desire for a future harmonious co-existence between whites and blacks, in 1963 Mr King said: “…even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…that all men are created equal.”