Louis Armstrong grew up poor in a single-parent household. He was 13 when he celebrated the New Year by running out on the street and firing a pistol that belonged to the current man in his mother's life. At the Colored Waifs Home for Boys, he learned to play the bugle and the clarinet and joined the home's brass band. They played at socials, picnics and funerals for a small fee. At 18 he got a job in the Kid Ory Band in New Orleans. Four years later, in 1922, he went to Chicago, where he played second coronet in the Creole Jazz Band. He made his first recordings with that band in 1923. In 1929 Armstrong appeared on Broadway in "Hot Chocolates", in which he introduced Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin', his first popular song hit. He made a tour of Europe in 1932. During a command performance for King George V, he forgot he had been told that performers were not to refer to members of the royal family while playing for them. Just before picking up his trumpet for a really hot number, he announced: "This one's for you, Rex."


Satchmo became Armstrong's nickname after his 1932 Grand Tour of Europe. A London music magazine editor wrote "Satchmo" in an article -- probably because he couldn't read his garbled notes. Up until that time Armstrong's nickname was Satchelmouth. Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (under the category Early Influence). He was nicknamed "Pops" because that is the name he addressed everyone by. Later on in his career, he picked up the sobriquet "America's Jazz Ambassador" because of his frequent jazz concerts around the world. Although his career as a recording artist dates back to the 1920s, when he made now-classic recordings with Joe "King" Oliver, Bessie Smith and the legendary Jimmie Rodgers, as well as his own Hot Five and Hot Seven groups, his biggest hits as a recording artist came comparatively late in his life: "Mack the Knife" (1956), "Hello, Dolly!" (A number one hit in 1964), "What a Wonderful World" (1968) and "We Have All The Time In The World" (over 20 years after his death). Although the term didn't exist during his lifetime, there is much evidence to indicate that he may have been bulemic. He believed that it didn't matter what you ate, as long as you purged yourself regularly afterwards. He would do that with the help of an herbal laxative called Swiss Kriss, and even handed out mimeographed sheets on his diet regimen to friends. In all probability, this contributed to the health problems he suffered in the last years of his life. Embittered by the treatment of blacks in his hometown of New Orleans, he chose to be buried in New York City. Was only 16 when he married Daisy Parker