Malcom X

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz

May 19, 1925 Malcolm Little is born in University Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska.
1929 The family’s home in Lansing, Michigan, is burned to the ground.
1931 His father is found dead on the town’s trolley tracks.
1946 Serving 8 to 10 years sentence at Charlestown State Prison for armed robbery.
1948-49 Became a member of the Nation of Islam while in prison.
1953 Changes his name to Malcolm X and becomes Assistant Minister of Nation of Islam’s Detroit Temple.
1954 Becomes the Minister of Nation of Islam’s New York Temple.
1958 Marries Betty X in Lansing, Michigan.
1959 Travels to United Arab Republic, Sudan, and Nigeria, and Ghana.
1963 Suspended from representing the Nation of Islam, allegedly because of remarks concerning President Kennedy’s assassination.
March, 1964 Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam and starts his new organization, Muslim Mosque, Inc.
April, 1964 Malcolm X flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as the start of his Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca and visited Africa after.
May, 1964 Forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a secular group that advocated Pan-Africanism.
February 14, 1965 Malcolm X’s home is firebombed in the early morning.
February 21, 1965 Malcolm X is assassinated right after he begins speaking at the Audubon Ballroom, New York.

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today." - Malcom X

You should read more about this influental African American on his Wikipedia entry