“Dr. King Assassinated” and “Ben Hur sets Oscar Record” - This Day in History – Apr 4th

Dr. Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis

Back in 1968, 39-year-old, Dr. Martin Luther King was killed after being shot on a balcony at Memphis, TN’s Lorraine Motel. 

History.com stated that,  “the civil rights leader was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike and was on his way to dinner when a bullet struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. King was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis hospital.” 

The day before his untimely death he had spoken at a sermon describing the heartfelt message, “We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop...And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.” 

History.com acknowledged that, “Over the years, the assassination has been reexamined by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the Shelby County, Tennessee, district attorney's office, and three times by the U.S. Justice Department. The investigations all ended with the same conclusion: James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King. The House committee acknowledged that a low-level conspiracy might have existed, involving one or more accomplices to Ray, but uncovered no evidence to definitively prove this theory. In addition to the mountain of evidence against him--such as his fingerprints on the murder weapon and his admitted presence at the rooming house on April 4--Ray had a definite motive in assassinating King: hatred. According to his family and friends, he was an outspoken racist who informed them of his intent to kill Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He died in 1998.”

The Lorraine Motel is now a civil rights museum.  For more information, click here.

Charlton Heston’s Ben Hur sets Oscar record

Back in 1960, the epic movie, “Ben Hur,” won an astonishing 11 out of 12 Academy Awards, the most ever at this time.  The movie was long with its 3 hours and 32 minutes but with the dazzling background, dialogue and of course great acting it was well worth the watch due to William Wyler’s Technicolor magic. 

One of the most memorable scenes of this movie was the chariot race scene between Best Actor winner, Charlton Heston’s character Judah Ben-Hur and actor Stephen Boyd as Messala. 

According to history.com, “Filmed on location in Italy, on a budget of some $15 million, Ben-Hur was the most expensive movie ever made up to that point. The film’s famous chariot race scene alone took three weeks to shoot and used some 15,000 extras. The setting for the race was constructed on 18 acres of back-lot space at Cinecitta Studios outside Rome. Aside from a few of the most daredevil stunts, Heston and Stephen Boyd (who played Messala, Judah Ben-Hur’s boyhood friend turned bitter enemy) did most of their own chariot driving. The payoff was big: Writing in his review of the film for the New York Times, Bosley Crowther called the scene a “stunning complex of mighty setting, thrilling action by horses and men, panoramic observation and overwhelming dramatic use of sound.” 

“At the 1960 Oscars, Ben-Hur swept 11 categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith, playing an Arab sheik who befriends Ben-Hur), Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Direction, Best Sound, Best Score, Best Film Editing, Best Color Costume Design and Best Special Effects. It was also nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Ben-Hur’s record number of Oscars still stands, although two films (1997’s Titanic and 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) have matched it.”

All History facts provided from the link below:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gretzky-finishes-season-with-212-points?catId=10