Sir Edmund Hillary

The beekeeper who reached the top of the world

Timeline

• 1919: Born in Auckland, New Zealand
• 1920: Whole family moved to the farming community of Tuakau.
• 1931: Started Auckland Grammar School
• 1936: Started at the University of Auckland but dropped out after two years to help with his families' beekeeping business.
• 1939: He completed his first major climb, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier, close to Mt Cook.
• 1948: Edmund Hillary took part in an expidition that scaled the south ridge of Mt Cook.
• 1951: Joined Eric Shipton's British reconnaissance expedition to Everest.
• 1953: Applied and was accepted to the British expedition to climb Mt Everest.
• 29 May 1953: Edmund Hillary and a sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the summit.
• 1953: On his return to New Zealand. Hillary was knighted by the young Queen Elizabeth.
• 1953: Married for the first time to Louise Mary Rose.
• 1958: Overland expedition to the South Pole.
• 1960: Founded the Himalayan Trust.
• 1975: Wife gets killed in a plane crash en route to see him in the Himalayas
• 1977: Hillary led a jetboat expedition, from the mouth of the Ganges River to its source.
• 1987: Became the fourth person appointed to the Order of New Zealand.
• 1989: Married for the second time. This time to June Mulgrew, the widow of his close friend Peter Mulgrew who had died in the Erebus crash.
• 1992: Hillary became featured on the updated New Zealand $5 note. against all standard conventions
• 2005: In a Reader's Digest poll, Hillary was named as "New Zealand's most trusted individual"
• 11 January 2008: Hillary died aged 88. He was given a state funeral. Later that year a service of thanksgiving was held in his honour at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle

Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.
—Edmund Hillary, first words to lifelong friend George Lowe on returning from Everest's summit.

If you have time, you should read more about this incredible human being on hisWikipedia entry.

Written and coded by Stephen Farrell.