Short answers, pulled from the story.
Official records state Louis Armstrong was born on the 4th of August 1901, but he frequently claimed his birth date was the 4th of July 1900. Armstrong preferred the latter date because it aligned with his patriotic persona and the celebration of American independence.
Louis Armstrong received his formal musical education aboard the steamboat Sidney while traveling with Fate Marable's New Orleans Band on the Mississippi River. This experience taught him to read written music and exposed him to complex arrangements that set him apart from peers in informal street bands.
Louis Armstrong recorded influential tracks such as Potato Head Blues and West End Blues with the Hot Five between 1925 and 1928. These sessions introduced scat singing to the world after a mishap during the recording of Heebie Jeebies and transformed collective folk music into a soloist's art form.
Louis Armstrong publicly denounced Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957 to protest the Little Rock Crisis and the treatment of African Americans. He called the President two-faced and threatened to cancel a planned tour of the Soviet Union to highlight the injustice.
Louis Armstrong released Hello, Dolly! in 1964, which knocked The Beatles off the top of the charts and made him the oldest person to accomplish that feat. He was 62 years old when he achieved this biggest-selling record, demonstrating his enduring popularity in his final years.
Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack in his sleep on the 6th of July 1971 at his home in Corona, Queens. He had played a two-week engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria's Empire Room in March 1971 before being hospitalized for a heart attack shortly after.