Louis Armstrong, byname Satchmo (truncation of “Satchel Mouth”), (born August 4, 1901, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.—died July 6, 1971, New York, New York), the leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history. Although Armstrong claimed to be born in 1900, various documents, notably a baptismal record, indicate that 1901 was his birth year. He grew up in dire poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana, when jazz was very young. As a child he worked at odd jobs and sang in a boys’ quartet. In 1913 he was sent to the Colored Waifs Home as a juvenile delinquent.