Louis Armstrong Events

1901 Aug 4 Louis Armstrong is born
Armstrong often stated in public interviews that he was born on July 4, 1900, a date that has been noted in many biographies. Although he died in 1971, it wasn't until the mid-1980s that ...
1912 Louis Armstrong drops out of school
After dropping out of the Fisk School at eleven, Armstrong joined a quartet of boys that sang in the streets for money. But he also started to get into trouble. Cornet player Bunk Johnson...
1913 Dec 31 Louis Armstrong arrested for firing a gun
Armstrong developed his cornet playing seriously in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency, most notably for a l...
1917 Oct 21 Dizzy Gillespie is born
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of ...
1918 Mar 19 Louis Armstrong marries Daisy Parker
On March 19, 1918, Louis married Daisy Parker from Gretna, Louisiana. They adopted a 3-year-old boy, Clarence Armstrong, whose mother, Louis's cousin Flora, died soon after giving birth. ...
1922 Louis Armstrong joins Creole Jazz Band in Chicago
Through all his riverboat experience Armstrong’s musicianship began to mature and expand. At twenty, he could now read music and he started to be featured in extended trumpet solos, one o...
1924 Louis Armstrong joins Fletcher Henderson band in Harlem
Armstrong enjoyed working with Oliver, but Louis's second wife, pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, urged him to seek more prominent billing and develop his newer style away from the influence ...
1925 Louis Armstrong forms Hot Five and makes first records
Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 due mostly to the urging of his wife, who wanted to pump up Armstrong’s career and income. He was content in New York but later would concede that sh...
1929 Louis Armstrong tours with the musical Hot Chocolate
After separating from Lil, Armstrong started to play at the Sunset Café for Al Capone's associate Joe Glaser in the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra, with Earl Hines on piano, which was soon r...
1945 Louis Armstrong forms six piece group called the All Stars
Following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden, Armstrong's manager Joe Glaser dis...
1971 Jul 6 Louis Armstrong Dies
Armstrong died just after a heart attack on July 6, 1971, a month before his 70th birthday, and 11 months after playing a famous show at the Waldorf-Astoria's Empire Room. Shortly before ...
1990 Louis Armstrong inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees fall into three categories: artists (eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording), early influences (pre-rock pioneers) and nonperfor...
2001 Aug 4 New Orleans Airport renamed Louis Armstrong International Airport
MSY opened after World War II, replacing the older New Orleans Lakefront Airport (which kept the NEW and KNEW airport codes and now serves general aviation) as the city's main airport[cit...
2003 Oct 15 Louis Armstrong House Museum opens to the public
The house where Louis Armstrong lived for close to 28 years was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977 and is now a museum. The Louis Armstrong House Museum, at 34-56 107th Street ...