Composer Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime,” is born in Texarkana, Arkansas. Joplin became a well-known pianist in Chicago and St. Louis in the 1890s. His “Maple Leaf Rag” of 1899 launched a national craze for ragtime music, and he composed many other popular ragtime songs, including “The Entertainer.” Joplin died in 1917.