Early Life
1813Livingstone born on March 19 in Blantyre, Scotland
1823Starts work in cotton mill
1838Accepted by London Missionary Society (LMS) for work in China
1839Start of Opium War (which lasts until 1842) makes China missions impracticable
1840Chance meeting with Robert Moffat in London persuades Livingstone to work in Africa; qualifies as doctor, ordained as minister, and sails for South Africa
1841Reaches Cape Town; travels to Moffat’s station in Kuruman
1845Marries Mary Moffat
First Journeys
1847-52Founds several mission stations, ending with Kolobeng
1849Trip to Lake Ngami with William Cotton Oswell earns him fame in Britain
1851Reaches upper Zambezi River for the first time
1852Mary takes children to England
1853-6Crosses southern Africa from coast to coast
1856Returns to England and receives a hero’s welcome—and the gold medal from the Royal Geographic Society
1857Publishes Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; leaves the LMS
Zambezi Expedition
1858Zambezi Expedition sets sail; initial objectives abandoned by the end of the year
1859Livingstone reaches Lake Nyasa
1862Mary joins her husband on the Zambezi and dies almost immediately
1863Zambezi Expedition and Universities Mission are recalled; Livingstone sails 2,500 miles to India to get a good price for his ship
1864Son, Robert, dies of wounds fighting for the Union in the American Civil War days before he turns 19.
1865Livingstone publishes Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tributaries
Last Journey
1866-73On his last journey, tries (unsuccessfully) to find the source of the Nile
1871Meets Henry M. Stanley
May 1873Dies near Lake Bangweulu (Zambia); African companions take his body to Bagamoyo on the coast, a nine-month journey, and then to England
1874Buried in Westminster Abbey; The Last Journals published
Other Events
1815Napoleon defeated at Waterloo
Britain suppresses Boer uprising in Cape Town (South Africa)
1830Joseph Smith founds Mormon church
1833Britain passes Emancipation Act: all slaves in British colonies freed
1835P.T. Barnum begins career with exhibition of “George Washington’s nurse,” whom he says is 160 years old
1839First baseball game played in Cooperstown, N.Y.
185014 percent of U.S. population (23 million) are slaves
1853Cecil Rhodes born
1858English explorers Richard Burton and John Speke discover Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria Nyanza
1859Darwin publishes Origin of Species
1861-65American Civil War
1869Suez Canal opened
Thousands of prospectors flood South Africa in search of gold and gems
1874British gain control of Gold Coast (Ghana)
Elizabeth Isichei is professor of religious studies at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. She is the author of The History of Christianity in Africa (SPCK and Eerdmans, 1995).
Copyright © 1997 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine. Click here for reprint information on Christian History.
