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Known for
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Exploring southern and central Africa in an effort to spread Christianity and open the continent to European influences
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Milestones
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1841 Arrived in southern Africa to begin his missionary work
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1849 Crossed the Kalahari Desert and reached Lake Ngami in present-day Botswana
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1851 Crossed the Kalahari Desert a second time, reaching the upper Zambezi River
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1853 Returned to the Zambezi and searched for a waterway connecting the Zambezi River to the Atlantic Ocean
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1855 Traveled downstream on the Zambezi River and sighted a waterfall, which he named Victoria Falls in honor of the English Queen Victoria
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May 1856 Reached the mouth of the Zambezi on the Indian Ocean and became the first European to cross the width of southern Africa
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1856 Returned to England and was honored as a national hero
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1858-1863 Explored Lake Malawi (also known as Lake Nyasa) and the Zambezi, Shire, and Ruvuma rivers
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1866-1873 Explored the central African watershed in search of the source of the Nile River
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Did You Know?
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Upon finding the supposedly lost Livingstone in East Africa in 1871, newspaper reporter and explorer Henry Morton Stanley reportedly greeted him with the question, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?'
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Livingstone was badly mauled by a lion soon after his arrival in Africa and never regained the full use of his left arm.
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After his death in present-day Zambia, Livingstone's servants buried his heart beneath a tree and sent his body back to London, where it was buried in Westminster Abbey.
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Livingstone's wife and children sometimes accompanied him on his expeditions. His wife died of malaria during one of these journeys.
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Livingstone was an outspoken opponent of the African slave trade.
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