William Booth(1829–1912)
1829: Born April 10 in Nottingham [Born April 10 in Nottingham ]
1843: Father dies; works as pawnbroker
1844: Converted at Broad Street Wesleyan Chapel
1846: Adopts revivalist methods of James Caughey
1849: Arrives in London to work as asst. pawnbroker
1851: Meets Catherine Mumford
1854: Ordained by Methodist New Connexion
1855: Marries Catherine Mumford June 16
1857: Appointed to New Connexion “settled ministry”
1861: Resigns from the New Connexion; with Catherine becomes itinerant evangelist
1865: Opens Christian Mission in East London
1878: Renames Christian Mission a “Salvation Army”; first Salvation Army band
1882: Negotiates with Church of England to make Salvation Army a branch of the church
1885: Crusades against teenage prostitution; Army has 1,780 officers in U.K., 1,296 abroad
1888: First Salvation Army food and shelter outreach.
1890: Publishes In Darkest England and the Way Out
1891: Opens safety-match factory in East London
1898: Prays before the U.S. Senate
1905: Awarded Freedom of the City of London
1907: Receives honorary doctorate from Oxford
1912: Dies on August 20; succeeded as Salvation Army General by son Bramwell; 9,415 corps and 15,988 officers worldwide
(1989: 14,397 corps and 25,056 officers; two-thirds active)
Catherine Booth(1829–1890)
1829: Born Catherine Mumford on January 17 in Ashbourne, Derbyshire
1844: Family moves to south London
1846: Converted at home
1850: Expelled by Wesleyans
1851: Meets William Booth
1855: Marries on June 16
1859: Publishes Female Ministry
1860: Preaches first sermon
1861: Becomes, with William, itinerant evangelist
1865: Preaches in London’s West End and at summer resorts
1879: First edition of Army’s The War Cry
1880: Salvation Army begins official work in U.S. and Australia
1883: Salvation Army begins to help discharged prisoners, “fallen women”, and drunkards
1890: Dies of cancer on October 4
Significant Social and Political Events
1828: Duke of Wellington prime minister
1829: Catholic Emancipation in England
1833: Oxford Movement begins
1837: Victoria becomes Queen; Martin Van Buren inaugurated
1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert; penny postage begins in Britain
1841: U.K. pop. 18.5 million (U.S. 17 million)
1844: YMCA founded
1846: Irish potato famine
1848: Marx’s Communist Manifesto; revolutions across Europe
1854: Spurgeon becomes pastor of New Park Street Church; Immaculate Conception dogma
1854–56: Crimean War
1857: Indian Mutiny; Livingstone’s Missionary Travels
1859: Darwin’s Origin of Species
1861: Dickens’s Great Expectations
1861–65: U.S. Civil War
1866: Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment
1868: Gladstone prime minister
1869: First Vatican Council; British debtor’s prisons abolished
1874: Disraeli prime minister
1876: Bell invents telephone
1877: First Wimbledon championship
1878: Electric street lights introduced in London
1879: Henry George’s Poverty and Progress
1880: Gladstone prime minister
1881: London hits 3.3 million (New York 1.2)
1886: London church attendance begins to decline; Irish Home Rule defeated
1888: London Girls’ Match Strike; Jack the Ripper
1889: London Dock Strike
1890: Global flu epidemics
1892: Diesel engine
1893: Labour Party formed
1894: Kipling’s Jungle Book
1896: First modern Olympics
1898: Curies discover radium
1899–1902: Boer War in South Africa
1900: Planck’s quantum theory
1901: Queen Victoria dies; Edward VII begins reign
1903: 20-mph speed limit for cars in Britain
1910: Missionary Conference, Edinburgh
1912: Titanic sinks
1914: World War I begins
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