-
Birthdate
Charles Darwin was born February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, United Kingdom. His parents were Robert Darwin and Susannah Darwin and he had 4 sisters and 1 brother. -
Childhood
Charles Darwin was the fifth out of six kids, he was born into rich family where his father Robert Darwin had grown rich by investing money earned by his medicine practice.His grandfather Erasmus Darwin was a physician and scientist who had already made significant contributions to scientific ideas about revolution. -
Childhood Cont.
In his spare time he enjoyed hunting, and going on long walks observing everything around. He got so obsessed with hunting his father Robert Darwin once said "you care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all of your family." Despite his fathers opinions Darwin was always interested in science, he was taught geometry by a private tutor which he enjoyed a lot, he also enjoyed learning about how complex things work. -
School
Right after Darwin's mother's death when he was 8, at the age of 9 Darwin was sent to Shrewsbury School about a mile from his family home. His boarding school followed a traditional classic curriculum revolving around Ancient Greek and Latin, which Charles loathed. He wasn't considered to be especially smart. His schoolwork involved learning by heart for the next days lines of Roman or Greek Literature. Which, he would soon forget after class ended. -
Edinburgh and Medical School
In 1825, aged 16, Charles became a medical student at the University of Edinburgh, as his father had done 42 years earlier. His father had pleasant memories of Edinburgh, where he was taught by the great chemist Joseph Black, who discovered magnesium, carbon dioxide, and latent heat. Unlike his father however, Darwin did not enjoy medical school.In his second year at Edinburgh, Charles became interested in zoology, and he collected and dissected marine creatures. -
Medical School Cont.
Early in 1828, just before his twentieth birthday, Charles Darwin enrolled at the University of Cambridge to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree. After three easy years he received his B.A. degree with marks placing him near the top of the class. He had spent much of his time hunting, dining, drinking, and playing cards, all of which he enjoyed heartily.During his time in Cambridge, Darwin continued to pursue his scientific interests, particularly in botany and zoology. -
Life After College
The theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits. It was not until he was 50 years old, that Darwin finally published his theory of evolution in full for his fellow scientists and for the public at large. He did so in a 490 page book entitled On the Origin of Species. -
On the Origin of Species
Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation.[5] -
On the Origin of Species Cont.
The book was written for non-specialist readers and attracted widespread interest upon its publication. As Darwin was an eminent scientist, his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion. The debate over the book contributed to the campaign by T. H. Huxley and his fellow members of the X Club to secularise science by promoting scientific naturalism. -
Death
Following a lifetime of devout research, Charles Darwin died at his family home, Down House, in London, on April 19, 1882 from a fatal heart attack. He was buried at Westminster Abbey. According to his children, Darwin—a doting family man at a time when active fathers were rare—spoke these words to his wife Emma shortly before dying: “I am not the least afraid of death. Remember what a good wife you have been to me. -
Video about Darwin
