The Free Trade Hall has been host to an incredible number of historic figures who came to speak to the people of Manchester. The last person to speak at the Free Trade Hall before it was closed was the Dalai Lama. Before that, Charles Dickens appeared there annually for twenty tears until his farewell tour in 1868. The explorer Henry Stanley lectured on 'geographical science' in 1884, some thirteen years after presuming to find Dr. Livingstone. Disraeli spoke there in 1844, Gladstone in 1862, and in 1907 Winston Churchill was heckled by Suffragettes. Over the years the Free Trade Hall has also been host to many other events from boxing to bioscope shows. In May 1865 the entire interior was draped in black cloth for a memorial service for the assasinated Abraham Lincoln.