1759 (Aug. 24): William Wilberforce born.
1807: British Parliament votes to abolish slave trade.
1809 (Feb. 12): Abraham Lincoln born.
1820 (May 12): Florence Nightingale born.
1822?: Harriet Tubman born.
1833 (July 26): British Parliament emancipates all slaves.
1833 (July 29): William Wilberforce dies.
1849 (fall): Tubman escapes slavery.
1850–59: Tubman shepherds slaves to freedom.
1854–56: Nightingale serves as nurse in Crimean War.
1860: Lincoln elected president of the United States.
1861: US Civil War begins; Nightingale advises army hospital.
1862 (July 16): Ida B. Wells born.
1862: Tubman begins Civil War service as nurse and spy.
1863: Emancipation Proclamation.
1864: Lincoln reelected president.
1865 (Apr. 14): Abraham Lincoln shot; dies April 15.
1865 (Dec. 18): Thirteenth Amendment, barring slavery, takes effect.
1869 (Oct. 2): Mohandas Gandhi born.
1884: Wells begins writing for newspapers.
1892: Wells begins campaign against lynching.
1893: Gandhi begins campaigning in South Africa.
1906 (Feb. 4): Dietrich Bonhoeffer born.
1910: Wells-Barnett helps found NAACP.
1910 (Aug. 13): Florence Nightingale dies.
1910 (Aug. 26): Mother Teresa born.
1913 (Mar. 10): Harriet Tubman dies.
1914–18: World War I.
1915: Gandhi returns to India from South Africa.
1917 (Aug. 15): Oscar Romero born.
1918 (July 18): Nelson Mandela born.
1920 (May 18): Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) born.
1928 (Sept. 30): Elie Wiesel born.
1929: Mother Teresa arrives in India.
1929 (Jan. 15): Martin Luther King Jr. born.
1930 (Mar. 12): Gandhi leads Salt March.
1931 (Mar. 25): Ida B. Wells-Barnett dies.
1933: Hitler consolidates control of Germany.
1938 (Nov. 9–10): Kristallnacht pogrom amid rising anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany.
1939: Bonhoeffer returns to Germany and joins conspiracy.
1939–45: World War II.
1940: Nazis construct concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1941: Germany begins implementation of “Final Solution.”
1943: Bonhoeffer arrested.
1944 (May): Wiesel family deported to Auschwitz; several killed.
1945 (Feb.): Wiesel and Bonhoeffer at Buchenwald concentration camp.
1945 (Apr. 9): Dietrich Bonhoeffer hanged.
1945 (Apr. 30): Hitler commits suicide.
1946: Mass killings in conflicts between Indian Muslims and Hindus.
1946 (Sept. 10): Mother Teresa called to serve poorest of the poor.
1946 (Nov. 1): Wojtyla ordained.
1947 (Aug. 15): Indian independence and birth of Pakistan.
1948 (Jan. 30): Mohandas Gandhi assassinated.
1948: Apartheid regime begins in South Africa.
1955: Montgomery bus boycott begins.
1958: Wiesel publishes Night.
1962–65: Second Vatican Council.
1963 (Aug. 28): King delivers “I Have a Dream” speech.
1964: Wojtyla named archbishop of Cracow.
1964 (June 12): Mandela begins 27 years behind bars.
1964 (Dec. 10): King awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
1968 (Apr. 4): Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.
1977: Romero becomes archbishop of San Salvador.
1978: Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II.
1979: Mother Teresa awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
1980 (Mar. 24): Oscar Romero assassinated.
1986: Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize.
1989–91: Communist regimes collapse across Europe.
1990 (Feb. 11): Mandela released from jail.
1993: Mandela wins Nobel Peace Prize.
1994: Mandela becomes president of South Africa.
1997 (July 12): Malala Yousafzai born.
1997 (Sept. 5): Mother Teresa dies.
2005 (Apr. 2): Pope John Paul II dies.
2012 (Oct. 9): Yousafzai shot in the head by the Taliban.
2013 (Dec. 5): Nelson Mandela dies.
2014 (Oct. 10): Yousafzai awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
2016 (July 2): Elie Wiesel dies.