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Birth
Charles Darwin was born on February 12th, 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England to Robert and Susannah Darwin. -
Darwin sets sail on the HMS Beagle
After failed attempts at getting an education in medicine and clergy, Darwin got the opportunity to serve as a "gentleman naturalist." Darwin's father originally refused to allow him to go, but his brother finally persuaded him to allow Darwin to go and to finance his trip. Darwin called his voyage on the HMS Beagle the "most important event in his life." “Charles Darwin's Beagle Voyage | American Museum of Natural History.” AMNH, www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/a-trip-around-the-world. -
The Theory of Evolution
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On the Origin of Species is Published
23 years after Darwin left the HMS Beagle, he published his thoughts in a book called "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life." This book is significant in that it proposed the theory that life evolves due to natural selection and that changes in the environment can lead to slow, very gradual changes in the creatures as they adapt to those changes. This marks the beginning of Darwanism. -
Charles Darwin Passes Away
Charles Darwin died at his home in Downe, Kent, England on April 19th, 1882 at the age of 73 after having been diagnosed with heart disease earlier in the year. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in London right next to the famous Astronomer, Sir John Herschel and not far from Sir Isaac Newton. His family also erected a life-size memorial of him near his tomb in 1888. “Charles Darwin.” Westminster Abbey, www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/charles-darwin/.
