On this day in 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to assassinating civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

King was killed by a single shot on April 4, 1968, while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

After the shooting, Ray hid for a month in Toronto, Ontario, and acquired a Canadian passport under the false name of Ramon George Sneyd.

He was captured on June 8, 1968, at London's Heathrow Airport.

Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison but later recanted his confession and tried to get a new trial.

He died in prison at the age of 70 on April 23, 1998.