Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong was born to Mary and William Armstrong on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in poverty and his father left the family while Armstrong was a child. After his father left, Armstrong and his younger sister Beatrice passed back and forth between their grandmother and uncle until they returned to live with their mother when Armstrong was five. He attended the Fisk School for Boys until the age of eleven and experienced a variety of music and dancing during his attendance. At the age of eleven, Armstrong left school at the Fisk School for Boys. He sang in a quartet of kids who performed for money in the streets. In 1913, he shot his stepfather's gun into the air during a New Year's Eve party and was sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs for a year. Armstrong played cornet in the house band and they traveled around New Orleans playing at various places. His teacher, Peter Davis, mentored him during that time and made Armstrong the leader of the band. It was then that his musical abilities began to develop, and he ...