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Early Life

1813 

Livingstone born on March 19 in Blantyre, Scotland

1823 

Starts work in cotton mill

1838 

Accepted by London Missionary Society (LMS) for work in China

1839 

Start of Opium War (which lasts until 1842) makes China missions impracticable

1840 

Chance meeting with Robert Moffat in London persuades Livingstone to work in Africa; qualifies as doctor, ordained as minister, and sails for South Africa

1841 

Reaches Cape Town; travels to Moffat’s station in Kuruman

1845 

Marries Mary Moffat

First Journeys

1847–52 

Founds several mission stations, ending with Kolobeng

1849 

Trip to Lake Ngami with William Cotton Oswell earns him fame in Britain

1851 

Reaches upper Zambezi River for the first time

1852 

Mary takes children to England

1853–6 

Crosses southern Africa from coast to coast

1856 

Returns to England and receives a hero’s welcome—and the gold medal from the Royal Geographic Society

1857 

Publishes Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; leaves the LMS

Zambezi Expedition

1858 

Zambezi Expedition sets sail; initial objectives abandoned by the end of the year

1859 

Livingstone reaches Lake Nyasa

1862 

Mary joins her husband on the Zambezi and dies almost immediately

1863 

Zambezi Expedition and Universities Mission are recalled; Livingstone sails 2,500 miles to India to get a good price for his ship

1864 

Son, Robert, dies of wounds fighting for the Union in the American Civil War days before he turns 19.

1865 

Livingstone publishes Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tributaries

Last Journey

1866–73 

On his last journey, tries (unsuccessfully) to find the source of the Nile

1871 

Meets Henry M. Stanley

May 1873 

Dies near Lake Bangweulu (Zambia); African companions take his body to Bagamoyo on the coast, a nine-month journey, and then to England

1874 

Buried in Westminster Abbey; The Last Journals published

Other Events

1815 

Napoleon defeated at Waterloo

Britain suppresses Boer uprising in Cape Town (South Africa)

1830 

Joseph Smith founds Mormon church

1833 

Britain passes Emancipation Act: all slaves in British colonies freed

1835 

P.T. Barnum begins career with exhibition of “George Washington’s nurse,” whom he says is 160 years old

1839 

First baseball game played in Cooperstown, N.Y.

1850 

14 percent of U.S. population (23 million) are slaves

1853 

Cecil Rhodes born

1858 

English explorers Richard Burton and John Speke discover Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria Nyanza

1859 

Darwin publishes Origin of Species

1861–65 

American Civil War

1869 

Suez Canal opened

Thousands of prospectors flood South Africa in search of gold and gems

1874 

British gain control of Gold Coast (Ghana)

By Elizabeth Isichei

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