Conspiracy theories persist around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination

The FBI ran a covert campaign to discredit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

From 1963 to 1968, the FBI surveilled Dr. King with wiretaps, hotel bugs, informants, and anonymous threats, citing concerns about Communist influence—an effort later revealed through declassified files and documented in the film MLK/FBI.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. survived a near-fatal assassination attempt in 1958

In 1958, Dr. King was stabbed in the chest by a woman at a Harlem book signing. The blade lodged near his aorta, requiring emergency surgery to save his life.

Hear about the violent week after Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination

This podcast from The Atlantic revisits the seven days after Dr. King was killed in 1968, when widespread violent unrest swept the country and reshaped the direction and legacy of the Civil Rights movement.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was unpopular with most Americans during his lifetime

Polling shows that public opinion of Dr. King shifted dramatically after his death: viewed unfavorably by most Americans in the mid-1960s, more than 80% of the public now believes he had a positive impact on our country, according to data from Pew and Gallup.

Creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day took 15 years of political advocacy

After Dr. King’s assassination, activists—including his wife Coretta Scott King—spent 15 years pushing Congress to create a federal holiday in his honor, facing repeated resistance before it was finally signed into law in 1983.

Conspiracy theories come from distrust in government, media, and institutions

Some believe JFK's assassination was orchestrated by larger networks rather than a lone shooter. Skeptics wondered how one unknown man could kill the most powerful person in America, and believed the CIA, FBI, or Soviet government played a role in the murder.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. publicly denounced the Vietnam War in 1967

In a 1967 speech, Dr. King comprehensively condemned the US war in Vietnam, linking militarism, racism, and poverty—a break that cost him allies and drew backlash from political leaders and major media outlets.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Mountaintop' speech became his final public address

Delivered in Memphis the night before his assassination, Dr. King’s 'Mountaintop' speech reflected on mortality, reaffirmed nonviolence, and framed the Civil Rights struggle as part of a longer moral struggle beyond his own life.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an avid fan of Star Trek

Dr. King praised the show’s vision of an integrated future and convinced African-American actress Nichelle Nichols to remain on the show, arguing her role offered a rare, powerful image of racial equality on American television.

Malcolm X’s relationship with Dr. King gradually became less contentious over time

Malcolm X initially rejected Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent approach and integrationist strategy. Still, he gradually acknowledged shared goals, signaling a late-life openness to cooperation within the broader Civil Rights movement.

Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. read his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail

Written in 1963 while jailed for nonviolent protest, Dr. King’s letter defends civil disobedience, rejects calls for patience, and argues that unjust laws must be confronted to expose injustice and force meaningful change.

The unsolved murder case of Martha Moxley and the overturned conviction of a Kennedy cousin

Moxley was murdered in 1975, and the case went cold for a quarter of a century until Michael Skakel—a young relative of the Kennedy clan—was convicted of the murder. Eleven years into his sentence, Skakel's conviction was overturned, prompting a new set of questions.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1964

At the age of 35, Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent leadership in the Civil Rights movement, making him the youngest recipient at the time.

Searching for a hate crime's unknown victim

In 2004, two federal agents heard a rumor: two white men, one under investigation for an unrelated crime, had gotten away with killing a Black man 15 years earlier as a requirement to join a white supremacist group. One of the men confessed to the crime, though he didn't know who was killed. This series dives into the search for the slain man and the justice he deserved.

An independent research team believes musician Kurt Cobain's death was not a suicide

Conspiracy theorists have long argued that the Nirvana frontman's 1994 death was a homicide. In 2026, an independent research team reached a similar conclusion. The Seattle Police Department, however, revisited the case in 2014 and maintained that it was a suicide.

There were dozens of attempts to assassinate Hitler—most famously Operation Valkyrie in July 1944

Across his reign, Hitler survived at least 40 plotted and actual assassination attempts, ranging from lone actors in beer halls to organized military conspiracies. The most notable, Operation Valkyrie on July 20, 1944, led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, planted a bomb at the Wolf’s Lair in an effort to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime. Though the explosion injured several, Hitler escaped with minor wounds, prompting a brutal purge of conspirators.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Watch a news clip from the evening of 'the Saturday Night Massacre'

On Oct. 20, 1973, President Nixon ordered the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox—prompting the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus. This NBC News Special Report shows the immediate aftermath of the decision.

The mysterious details of Stalin's death

The 73-year-old dictator of the Soviet Union died March 5, 1953, officially from a stroke, on top of nearly a decade of significant medical issues. But evidence suggests the longtime leader might have been poisoned less than a week before at an intimate gathering of Stalin's closest confidantes and advisors. Explore the current evidence for Stalin's alleged murder here.

Some people believe Paul McCartney died in 1966

The "Paul is dead" theory proposes the famous Beatle died in a car crash and was replaced by a McCartney look-alike. The idea gained traction after a student's article exploring the topic was published in 1969. Some fans believe The Beatles left clues of McCartney's passing in their songs.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Lincoln was assassinated by a well-known actor, who originally planned to kidnap him

On April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. Booth had initially conspired to kidnap Lincoln but turned to assassination after the Confederacy's defeat.

Who was behind the fatal 1982 Tylenol poisonings?

In 1982, an unknown suspect laced Tylenol packages with potassium cyanide in a Chicago pharmacy. Seven people were killed, and the case led to a nationwide panic, as well as the development of tamper-resistant packaging. No one was ever charged with the deaths, and the lead suspect died in 2023 after serving time in prison for trying to extort $1 million from a manufacturer to "stop the killing."

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The facts of Truth's life and legacy are still debated by historians

Historians have challenged the accepted biography of Truth—questioning whether she actually ever said "Ain't I a Woman?" and arguing that generations of activists have claimed Truth as a symbol at the expense of accurately understanding who she really was.

Stephen King once shelved his own book

Stephen King's "Rage" follows a high school student who kills a teacher and holds classmates hostage. Originally published in 1977, the book was later linked to several school shootings. In the late '90s, King asked his publisher to pull it from print.

Hughes testified before Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Investigations

In 1953, the writer was interrogated by the Subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn, about communism and its impact on his work. Cohn quoted lines from poems like “Goodbye, Christ” and “Ballads of Lenin,” but Hughes denied that he was a communist, explaining that poetry should not be taken literally. “That is a poem,” he told Cohn. “One can not state one believes every word of a poem.”

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

John Marshall presided over Aaron Burr's 1807 treason trial

During the 1807 trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, Marshall required proof of an overt act witnessed by two people to sustain a treason charge. His rulings limited executive influence and reinforced constitutional standards for conviction under Article III.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

An Ebola vaccine was developed during the 2018 west African Ebola outbreak, but the 2026 Ebola outbreak is with a different species of the virus, not the one that the vaccine is approved to treat.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.