Stock markets are closed in the United States today as that nation pauses to celebrate Martin Luther King Junior Day.

King was a Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the US civil rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s; famous for his “I Have a Dream,” speech in Washington in August of 1963.

At 35 King became the youngest man ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

On the evening of April 4th 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray who spent time hiding out in Toronto before he was finally caught in London, England.

At the time of his death, Martin Luther King Junior was 39.