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Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in London, England on April 3, 1934. Jane loved animals even as a child. She had a toy chimpanzee animal named Jubilee that she carried everywhere.
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In the fall of 1939, Jane hide for hours in a henhouse to discover where eggs come from. Janes love for animals grows. She dreams about watching and writing about animals.
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Earlier (in 1956) Jane's friend invites her to Kenya. She goes there in 1957 and she meets a famous anthropologist and palaeontologist, Dr. Louis Leakey. He hires her as his assistant and they travel to Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
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Janes arrives at Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanzania and begins studying chimpanzees.
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Janes see two chimpanzees (David Greybeard and Goliath) making tools to get termites from their mounds. This is one of her most important discoveries. Up to then, only humans were thought to be able to make tools.
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National Geographic sends a photographer to document Jane's life in Gombe. His name is Hugo, and they fall in love and marry and have one son. She later divorces Hugo and remarries in 1975.
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Etology is the study of animals and their behavior.
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National Geographic gives Jane a grant for construction of buildings. With these buildings on the site, the Gombe Stream Research Center is born.
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Jane founds the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation.
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Jane begins groundwork for Chimpanzoo, an international research program.
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Jane and 16 of her students created Roots & Shoots, the Jane Goodall Institute's global environmental and humanitarian education program for kids.
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The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appoints Jane to serve as an United Nations Messenger of Peace.
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Jane is made Dame of the British Empire (the equivalent of a knighthood) during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace of London.
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Jane continues her career by traveling and speaking about the threats facing chimpanzees and other environmental threats and problems.
