Key Dates in the Life of David Livingstone

• 19 March 1813, David Livingstone born in Blantyre, Scotland.
• 1823, begins work in Monteith and Company Cotton Mill.
• 1838, accepted by the London Missionary Society (LMS) for work in China.
• 1839, the Opium War erupts, closing China to Missions until 1842.
• 1840, meeting with Robert Moffat in London persuades David Livingstone to serve in Africa.
• November 1840, David Livingstone qualifies as a doctor.
• 20 November 1840, he is ordained as a Minster of the Gospel.
• 8 December 1840, sails for South Africa.

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• 8 December 1840, sails for South Africa.
• 17 March 1841, Livingstone reaches Cape Town.
• 16 April 1841, leaves Cape Town.
• 31 July 1841, arrives at Robert Moffat's Mission station in Kuruman.
• 2 January 1845, marries Mary Moffat.
• 1847 - 1852, Livingstone established several Mission stations ending with Kolobeng.
• 1849, exploratory expedition across the Kalahari desert to Lake Ngami earns him fame in Britain.
• 1851, reaches the Zambezi River for the first time.
• 1852, travels to Cape Town for the first time in 11 years and places Mary and his children on ship for Scotland.
• 1853 - 1856, explores Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, travelling across South central Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
• 16 November 1855, sights, measures, maps and names Victoria Falls.
• 1856, returns to England and a hero's welcome, with many awards from the Royal Geographic Society and from Queen Victoria.
• 1857, publishes Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.
• 1858, embarks on the Zambezi expedition.
• 1859, explores Lake Nyasa.
• 1862, Mary joins her husband on the Zambezi and dies of malaria within 3 months.
• 1863, Zambezi expedition recalled. To ensure that it was not acquired by a slave trader, Livingstone sails 4,000km to India to sell his boat in Bombay.
• 1864, eldest son, Robert, at age 18, dies of wounds, fighting for the Union in the American War between the States.
• 1865, Livingstone publishes Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tributaries.
• 1866, embarks on his last great Missionary expedition.
• 1871, meets Henry Morton Stanley at Ujiji.
• 1 May 1873, dies near Lake Bangweulu in Zambia. His African companions carry his body on a 9 month journey back to the coast and then to England.
• 18 April 1874, buried in Westminster Abby, and The Last Journals are published.

The Reformation Society

P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Fax: 021-685-5884
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za
Website: www.ReformationSA.org