TIMELINE: The life of the first man to conquer Everest

(Reuters) - New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary, who along with Nepal's Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first to conquer the world's highest peak Mount Everest, died in hospital in Auckland on Friday. He was 88.

Following is a chronology of Hillary's life.

July 20, 1919 - Born in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.

1939 - Beekeeper Hillary climbs his first major mountain, Mount Oliver in the South Island's Southern Alps, aged 20.

-- His climbing career goes on to span the next three decades and takes him to the Himalayas and the European Alps.

1943 - 1945 - Serves as a Catalina flying boat navigator during World War Two.

May 29, 1953 - Becomes the first to scale the 29,028 foot (8,848 meter) Mount Everest. The laconic antipodean reportedly tells companions afterwards "We knocked the bastard off".

1953 - Knighted by Britain's newly-coronated Queen, Elizabeth II, for being the first to conquer Everest.

1955 - Publishes mountaineering book, High Adventure, about the summit ascent.

1957 - Helps establish Scott Base in Antarctica.

Jan 4, 1958 - Leads first team to reach the South Pole, driving a slightly modified tractor of the type commonly used by New Zealand farmers.

1960s - Returns to Himalayas in search of the Yeti and sets up Himalayan Trust for charitable work in Nepal. The trust builds schools, hospitals and airfields.

1975 - Wife Louise and youngest daughter Belinda die in plane crash in Nepal.

1977 - Jetboats to the source of the Ganges in the Himalayas, with son Peter on "Ocean to Sky" expedition.

1985 - Becomes New Zealand's High Commissioner to India.

1986 - Climbing partner Tenzing Norgay dies.