When is Louis Armstrong’s birthday?

Louis himself believed that he was born on July 4th, 1900 and that date is still found in many jazz histories and reference books. In the mid-1980s, Armstrong expert Tad Jones discovered in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in New Orleans a baptismal certificate that indicates compellingly that Louis was actually born on August 4th, 1901. (This information was first widely reported in the book Satchmo by Gary Giddins.) At the Museum, we usually celebrate on both July 4th and August 4th.