“I was born in 1900,” begins Louis Armstrong’s autobiography. “Mayann told me that the night I was born . . . was the fourth of July, a big holiday in New Orleans, when almost anything can happen.” Louis was actually born on this day, August 4, 118 years ago, to Mary Ann “Mayann” Albert and William Armstrong. It is unclear why his mother, who was just fifteen when she gave birth to Louis, told the young Satchmo that he was born on the fourth of July.

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