Sir Edmund Hillary: Timeline 

Sir Edmund Hillary was born on July 20, 1919. He was the second of three children and grew up in Tuakau south of Auckland.

1939 - Hillary climbed his first mountain, Mount Olivier in the Southern Alps.

1943 - Ed decided to join the Air Force and trained to be a navigator. He spent his spare time climbing whenever he could and promised himself that he would be a mountaineer after the war.

1945 - Sir Ed was a Catalina flying boat navigator in the Pacific during the war. He was badly burnt in an accident in Fiji and returned home. He spent the next few years climbing in the Southern Alps as much as he could, including the highest mountain in New Zealand, Mount Cook (3764 metres).

1947 - Climbed Mt Cook for the first time in 1947

1949 - Hillary travelled to Europe and climbed in the Austrian and Swiss Alps.

1953

29 May - Hillary, accompanied by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay conquered Mt Everest.

16 July - Hillary was given a knighthood for his Everest achievement

- Married Louise Rose on his return to New Zealand and continued work as a beekeeper.

1954 - Sir Ed's son Peter was born

1955 - His daughter Sarah was born.

1955 - Published High Adventure.

1956 - Published East of Everest which he wrote with George Lowe.

4 January 1958 - Hillary led a team to the South Pole. On Fergusson tractors Sir Ed and his team drove overland to the South Pole. They became the first men to reach the pole since Robert Falcon Scott, beating the British explorer Vivien Fuchs by 16. The adventure took Ed away from home for 18 months.

1959 - Daughter Belinda born.

1961 - Attempt to climb Mt Makalu in the Himalaya's without Oxygen.

- began a lifetime of fundraising and charity work by building a school for the children of Khumjung.

- Published No Latitude for Error

1963 - Published High in the Thin Cold Air

1965 - Published Schoolhouse in the Clouds

1975

March - Sir Ed's wife Louise and their youngest daughter Belinda (16) were killed when the plane they were on crashed on takeoff at a Kathmandu airstrip. The family were going to spend a year Nepal at the time building a school. Sir Ed suffered from depression following their deaths.

- Published "Nothing Venture, Nothing Win"

1977 - Sir Ed along with his son Peter joined the From the Ocean to the Sky adventure - travelling by jet boat from the mouth of the sacred Ganges to its source in the Himalaya's.

1979 - Sir Ed's close friend Peter Mulgrew died in the Mt Erebus crash. Hillary had been scheduled to act as a commentator on the Antarctica flight to but had to pull out due to work commitments elsewhere. Mulgrew was his replacement.

- Published From the Ocean to the Sky

1984 - Published Two Generations.

1985 - 89

Hillary became the New Zealand High Commissioner to India after David Lange decided to renew diplomatic relations with the country.

23 October 1986 - Hillary was honoured by the television programme This is Your Life.

1987 - Tenzing Norgay died. Just before his death he had written a biography in which he told for the first time that it was Hillary who had reached the top of Everest first

- Hillary became a member of the Order of New Zealand

1989 - Announced his plans to marry his long time companion, June Mulgrew. The widow of his good friend Peter, June had been Hillary's official consort and companion while in India. Dame Cath Tizard officiated at the wedding.

1990 - Hillary's son Peter climbed Everest.

1991 - While on a trip to Nepal Sir Ed had a brush with death when he suffered altitude sickness.

1995 - Named as one of only 24 Noble Orders of the Garter.

1999 - Sir Ed's 80th birthday celebrated at Government House

1999 - Published A View from the Summit.

2002 - Control of Sir Ed's Himalayan Trust was handed over to Sherpas.

2003 - There were celebrations at home and abroad for the 50th anniversary of Hillary and Tenzing's conquest of Everest

2007 - Sir Ed flew to Antarctica to mark his historic Journey there and the establishment of Scott Base.