Final answer:
Martin Luther King Jr. was stabbed in 1958 by Izola Curry in a Harlem department store, which nearly claimed his life nearly a decade before he was assassinated in 1968.
Step-by-step explanation:
Almost a decade before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr. narrowly escaped an attempt on his life. In September 1958, King was signing copies of his book at a department store in Harlem, New York, when he was stabbed by a mentally ill African American woman named Izola Curry. The assailant plunged a letter opener into his chest, perilously close to his aorta. The delicate operation to remove the blade was successful, and King survived. This incident was a stark prelude to his tragic death on April 4, 1968, when he was shot and killed by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.