9. King Twice Attempted Suicide
King struggled with bouts of depression throughout his life and he nearly didn’t grow into the celebrated hero he was to become. When interviewed for Time‘s Person of the Year in 1963, King recalled attempting suicide as a child. While he was assigned with watching his younger brother, he instead snuck away to see a parade. When the younger boy slid down a banister, bumping into and knocking down King’s grandmother, the woman fell to the floor unconscious. King thought she had died and, stricken with grief and guilt, jumped from a second-story window. Fortunately for King, his family and the world, he landed on the ground unhurt. But that would not be King’s final attempt at taking his own life. When he was still just 12, his grandmother did die, and the young King allegedly attempted suicide again, with the same result.
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