1867, October 28
The child Margaret Elizabeth is born to Mary Isabel Hamilton and Samuel Richmond Noble of Scotch Street, Dungannon, Northern Ireland.
1877
Reverend Samuel Noble passes away after a brief illness. His deep faith and empathy for the poor remains a lifelong influence on Margaret.
1891-94
A young Margaret takes up a teaching job at Wimbledon, England. She is an exceptionally gifted teacher and within a few years, starts a school of her own, influenced by the progressive methods of Swedish educator Johann Pestalozzi and his pupil Friedrich Froebel.
1894
Margaret co-founds the Sesame Club, where she is noticed for her strong, progressive views on education. She makes the acquaintance of leading intellectuals such as Thomas Huxley, the poet W. B. Yeats and playwright George Bernard Shaw.
1895 November.
Margaret meets Swami Vivekananda at a lecture at Isabella Margesson’s residence at West End, London. She is profoundly influenced by the Swami’s vision and starts corresponding with him on a regular basis.
1898, January 28.
Margaret arrives in Calcutta on the ship Mombasa.
1898, March 17.
Margaret meets Sarada Devi for the first time who shares food with her, breaking a centuries old taboo. Sarada Devi’s gesture throws opens doors for foreign-born Margaret in orthodox Hindu society of the time.
1898, March 25.
Initiated by Vivekananda into Brahmacharya, becomes Nivedita, The Dedicated, of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.
1898, May 11.
Travels to the Himalayas with Swamiji and fellow disciples Sara Bull and Josephine McLeod.
1898, November.
Nivedita returns to Calcutta and moves to 16, Bosepara Lane.
1898, November 13.
Sarada Devi inaugurates the girls’ school on November 13 with a puja in the Thakur Dalan. Swami Vivekananda is present with his brother disciples.
1899
During a boat ride on the Ganga, Swamiji shows Nivedita a site he has earmarked for the Sri SaradaMath. The Math would indeed come up there later, but not in their lifetimes.
1899, March.
Plague breaks out in Calcutta. Nivedita throws herself into relief work. Preventive sanitation measures are carried out by Ramakrishna Mission under her supervision.
1899, May 28.
Nivedita delivers her historic lecture on Kali Worship at the Kalighat Temple.
1899, June 20.
Nivedita leaves for England with Vivekananda and Turiyananda to raise funds for the school. In London, Vivekananda meets her family for the first time.
1899, November 5, Chicago.
Vivekananda bestows spiritual powers upon Nivedita and Sara Bull. “What came to us from a Woman I give to you two women,” he says. Nivedita calls the incident the “great turning point” of her life.
1900, February 27.
Nivedita establishes the “Ramakrishna Guild of Help” in America, supported by Besse Leggett of Ridgely Manor and longtime Vivekananda disciple Sara Bull. The modest plan is to take in and train “twenty widows and twenty orphan girls.”
1900, 8 July.
Nivedita’s book Kali the Mother is published. She dedicates it to her guru Swami Vivekananda, as Vireshwar, Lord of Heroes.
1900, 29 August.
Nivedita receives Swamiji’s now famous benediction at Perros-Guirec village, in Brittany, France. “Be thou to India’s future son / The mistress, servant, friend in one.”
1901 May.
Nivedita travels to Norway as Sara Bull’s guest,accompanied by Abala and JC Bose, and the renowned historian Romesh Chandra Dutt. Dutt inspires her to start writing the acclaimed Web of Indian Life.
1901 September-December.
Nivedita assists JC Bose in writing his epoch-making The Living and Non-Living.
Caption: A rough sketch by Nivedita illustrating the mimosa plant’s survival strategy. A goat is tempted by the leafy plantwhich wilts at its touch, tricking the goat into leaving it alone.