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Bishop Ussher
Archbishop James Ussher of ierland calculates that the creation of heaven and earth began in 4004 B.C.. This figure is then used for 200 years in the English editions of the bible. -
Spontaneous Generation
New magnification instruments are fueling scientific reasearch. Now the ancient question of life can come from non-living matter can be takled ina a new way. Jesuit physitian Francesco Redi, for instance, shows why fly maggots often crop up in putrfied meat. -
Linnaeus
Carl von Lee, attempts to clasify all life on Earth. This is a great landmark in science that will influence future naturalists including Charles Darwin. -
Comte de Buffon
Georges Louis Leere, Comte de Buffon speculates that living creatures evolve according to natural laws. Buffon even relates that apes and humans are related, and that all life descended from a single ancestor. -
Natural Theology
Archdeacon William Paley's holds that not only god's existance but also his artributes are manifest in the intricate forms of nature. Paley singles out the eye as an organ of such complexity that, like a a poket watch, it must have been disigned by an inteligent designer. -
Lamarck
French naturalist Jean Baptise de Lamarck proposes that living things evolve to get more complex through time. In his "Philosophie zoologique", Lamark claims that "vital forces" within creatures help them adapt to their enviorment. -
Cuvier
The construction of mines and canals in early 19th century unearths fosils of bizare and extinct creatures.French Naturalist Georges Cuvier attemps to explain them. He argues that series of catastrophes, grat floods and earthquakes wiped out certian life in the distant past. But he rails against the notion of past life evolved ito present forms. -
Lyell
Most naturalists of the early 19th century thinked that the history of earth-and life on it-spans vast ages. Charles Lyell helps further this idea by arguing that slow-moving, gradual processes explain Earths geology. He echoes his mentor, James Hutton, who wrote Earths history. And Lyell becomes mentor himself to Charles Darwin. Darwin will apply Lyell's notion of gradual of gradual change to his theory of how species evolve. -
Beagle Voyage
When Charles begins his sailing around the world, he intended his life to clergy. But 5 years later, at the end of what was to be a 2 year trip, he is a changed man. He is now comited to a life of science, discovering natures laws, and what he found about evolution in south america. -
Neanderthal
An unearthed fossil in Germany debates over weather all humans are direct decsendants from Adan and Eve. The skull was human shaped or looked like a modern human, yet it is distinctly different. -
Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, was a young British explorer, writes Darwin from Malysia, seeking the older naturlaists advice. Wallace had a theory of how spieces evolved. Darwing got shocked; Wallace was strucked into the theory of Natural Selection that Darwing had been reasearching for 20 years. If it wouldnt be by Wallace, Darwin would never publish his ideas. -
Origin of Species
Darwins book was the mos influencial. It offers a wealth of evidence and proposes a coherent theory of evolution. -
Ape Debate
While in the origi of spieces does not address human evolution, critics assume (correctly) that Darwin thinks humans are exeption. At a meeting of Britian's leading scientists, criticcs attack Darwins Theory for bestializing human kind. -
Evolution Accepted
The prominent scientists continue to reject the idea of evolution. But a few years later when On The Origin Of Spieces is published, evolution is mainstream science. -
The Descent of Man
Darwin now unabashedly human evolution. Now his new book talks about the importance of sexual selection. -
Horse Fossils
Thomas Huxley jornies to the U.S. to give public lectures. Looking for a dramatic example to capture the publics imigration's, he visits fossil hunter Othneil Charles Marsh. Marsh foud fossils. And Huxley and Marsh piece together the story of evolution of the modern horse from a four-toad ancestor. -
Darwin´s Burial
Darwin died. He is laid in the rest of the place of honor. And evolution was accepted. -
Radioactivity
Is Piltdown Man a "missing link"? Both critics and proponents of evolution eagerly await the discovery of a "missing link" between humans and other primates. The fossil skull called Piltdown Man seems to be this link. The New York Times hails the find of Piltdown Man with the headline "Darwin Theory is Proved True." The find at first bolsters the argument for human evolution -- in the 1920s, a model of the skull is even brought to the Scopes trial by the defense. -
Piltdown Man
The fossil skull called Piltdown Man seems to be the missing link. Darwins theory was true. -
First Anti-evolution bills
First anti-evolution bills passed. Spurred by William Jennings Bryan and a growing grassroots movement, six Southern and border states consider anti-evolution proposals. Two measures pass. In Oklahoma, a ban is placed on public school textbooks that teach the "Materialist Conception of History (i.e.) the Darwin Theory of Creation." In Florida, a non-binding resolution declares, "It is improper and subversive to the best interest of the people" for public schools "to teach as true Darwinism". -
man-like ape
Raymon Dart anounces that a prehistoric man-like ape has been found in a limestone quarry at Taungs, South Africa -
Biology textbooks censored
Publishers remove refrences to evolution from biology textbooks. -
Tennese Bill
Tennessee law bans teaching human evolution. By an overwhelming majority, the Tennessee legislature passes a bill that makes it a misdemeanor for public school teachers "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man had descended from a lower order of animal." Backers of the bill argue that taxpayers have a right to control their children's education, and that most taxpayers oppose teaching human evolution. -
Neo-Darwinism
The science of genetics has offered profound new insights into evolution. Now scientists understand that random mutations can cause changes in the trates of organisms. -
Evolution shunned
Evolution shunned in U.S. schools. With textbooks effectively censored by commercial concerns and many anti-evolutionist rulings and regulations in place, the teaching of evolution hits a low point. In high school science classes, particularly in the South, one of the greatest obstacles to teaching evolution may be self-censorship. Many teachers and administrators fear offending parents and community leaders. -
Supreme Court
Supreme Court bans religion in public schools. For much of American history, the constitutional limit on the establishment of religion was interpreted to mean only that government should not give explicit preference to any denomination. But in 1947, the Supreme Court rules that neither a state nor the federal government "can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another." -
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII sees way to accept evolution. In his paper on human origins, Humani gereris, Pope Pius XII considers evolution as a serious hypothesis worthy of in-depth study. He leads the way for Catholics to accept even human evolution by stressing a distinction between body and soul: "If the human body takes its origin from pre-existent living matter, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God." -
origins of life
Can origins of life be glimpsed in a lab? With electric currents to act as lightning and a soup of inorganic chemicals to simulate the conditions of ancient Earth, a young graduate student named Stanley Miller produces amino acids -- key chemical building blocks of life. Miller is a student of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Harold Urey, and the experiment credited to both of them becomes widely publicized. -
DNA
DNA puzzle solved. Science has known for decades that genes determine the traits of living things and that they are passed down through generations. But it takes the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA to unlock the details of what genes are and how they work. It may be the most important event in 20th-century biology. It is also a boon to evolutionary science. -
humans and apes
A new view of humans and apes. Breakthroughs in genetic science allow researchers to see striking similarities in the DNA blueprints for humans and apes. Comparing the DNA of humans, orangutans, and African apes (gorillas and chimps), Vincent Sarich and Allen Wilson find evidence that humans are more closely related to African apes than African apes are to orangutans. In 1971, Mary-Claire King and Allen Wilson estimate that humans and chimps share more than 98% of their genes. -
Supreme Court evolution
Supreme Court strikes law against evolution. In the wake of the Sputnik-era push for better science education, lawsuits begin challenging anti-evolutionist legislation in the South. In Little Rock, Ark., the state teachers' organization launches Epperson v. Arkansas. (A young biology teacher named Susan Epperson, like John Scopes decades earlier, has volunteered for the cause.) The case eventually reaches the Supreme Court, which rules the Arkansas law unconstitutional. -
DNA codes
DNA codes offer new evidence of evolution. DNA, the genetic blueprint for living things, is like a text made up of chemical letters. For many decades, reading the sequence of letters in DNA was a painstaking process. But new technology now makes DNA sequencing relatively easy and inexpensive, which leads to an explosion of research. Evolutionary scientists now see, at a molecular level, how the DNA of various organisms has changed through time as these organisms have evolved. -
textbook disclaimers
Do textbook disclaimers taint evolution? The school board of Tangipahoa Parish, La., passes a requirement that whenever evolution is taught, students must be informed that the material is "not intended to influence or dissuade the Biblical version of creation." Is it an act of reconciliation or, as critics charge, an effort to make evolutionary science appear shaky? -
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II endorses evolution. John Paul II's papal letter proclaims there is no essential conflict between evolutionary science and the world's largest Christian faith. By distinguishing between body and spirit, his predecessor Pius XII opened the door for Catholic acceptance of evolution. -
Science standards
Science standards called "reprehensible." A nationwide study sponsored by The Fordham Foundation laments that 19 U.S. states do "a weak-to-reprehensible job of handling evolution in their science standards." Twelve states shun the word "evolution," and four avoid topics in evolution completely. -
Human genome
Human genome reveals human evolution. With the first draft of the sequence of the human genome complete, scientists see more than ever before how intimately related the human species is to other life on Earth. Humans not only share more than 98 percent of their genes with chimpanzees, they even have genes in common with fruit flies and yeast. The field of genomics gives scientists new tools for understanding how humans, along with all living organisms, have evolved over billions of years.
