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Bishop Ussher
Archbishop James Ussher from Ireland calculated that Heaven and Earth took place on 4004 B.C (1650). And now scientists from the 20th century will use some similar methods to assert that life first appear on Earth less than 10,000 years ago. -
Spontaneous Generation
New instruments or items are helping scientists on there research. of first living creatures in earth. The ancient question of whether life can arise from non-living matter now can be made in a new way. -
Linnaeus's Systema Naturae charts life
The swedish botanist Carl von Linne, was writing under the Latin name called Linnaeus, to classify all life on earth. His system divides life into kingdoms, classes, orders, genera, species, etc. This is a landmark to science that will greatly influence future naturalist, including the famous Charles Darwin. -
Comte de Buffon
In his natural history, Georges Louis Leclere, who created Comte de Buffon, speculates that living creatures evolve according to the natural laws. He even said that humans and apes are related, and that all life has descended from a single ancestor -
Natural Theology
Archdeacon William Paley's Natural Theology holds that not only God's existence but also his attributes are manifest in the inticrate forms of nature. Paley singles out the eye as an organ of so much complexity. -
Lamarck
Lamarck proposed that living things evolve to become more complex through time. -
Cuvier
In the 19th century's fossils from of bizarre and extinct creatures were discvover and naturalist George Cuvier tried to explain them saying that series of catastrophes happen which wiped the creatures from the distant past. -
Lyell
In the 19th century naturalists thought that life on Earth started a long time ago, so Charles Lyell helps this idea to go further by arguing that slow-moving, gradual prosesses explain Earth's geology. -
Beagle Voyage
Charles Darwin begins his voyage around the world and he intends to spend his life in the clergy. But five years later, at the end of what was supposed to be a two year trip, he had become a new man. -
Neanderthal
A fossil skull was found in Germany's Neander Valley and that created a debate whether all humans are the direct descendants of Adam and Eve. -
Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, a young British explorer, writes Darwin from Malaysia, seeking the older naturalist's advice. Wallace has a theory of how species might evolve. -
Origin of Species
From the first work on evolution, Darwin's book (more fully entitled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection) is the most influential. It offers a wealth of evidence and proposes a coherent theory for evolution: Just as domestic animals evolve through breeding, or "artificial selection". -
Ape debate
Darwin's foes protest ape-man connection. While On the Origin of Species does not address human evolution, critics assume (correctly) that Darwin thinks humans are no exception. -
Evolution Accepted
Some prominent scientists continue to reject the idea of evolution, but only a few years after. On the Origin of Species is published, evolution is mainstream science. -
Decedent of man
Unlike in On the Origin of Species, meaning that Darwin unabashedly takes on human evolution.His new book also stresses the importance in driving the evolution of life. -
Horse Fossils
Horse fossils reveal a story of evolution. Passionate advocate of evolutionary science Thomas Huxley journeys to the U.S. to give public lectures. -
Darwin´s burial
Darwin buried in Westminster Abbey. Darwin's body is laid to rest in a place of honor, near the grave of Sir Isaac Newton. His burial in the most prominent abbey in England is attended by Britain's leading politicians, scientists, and clergy. -
Radioactivity
Radioactivity points to an ancient Earth. The discovery of radioactivity by physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel leads to stunning calculations of Earth's age. Failure to understand radioactivity within Earth threw off earlier calculations. -
Piltdown man
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. he 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 but in the 1950s the fossil is revealed as a fake. -
Man Like Ape
Taungs "man-like ape" stirs fury. Raymond Dart announces that a prehistoric "man-like ape" has been found in a limestone quarry at Taungs, South Africa. The fossils are found along with the skull of an ancient baboon that has a mysterious opening. -
Tennessee 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." -
Textbook Censored
Biology textbooks censored. Fearing loss of sales in the South and West, publishers remove references to evolution from biology textbooks, including George William Hunter's A Civic Biology, the book at issue in the Scopes trial. The teaching of evolution is curbed around the country. -
First Anti Evolution Bill
Anti-evolution bills spread. In the years following the Scopes trial, some 35 new anti-evolution bills are proposed in 20 states, and three states pass laws. By the 1930s, many areas in which fundamentalists hold political sway have passed some form of restriction on teaching evolution. -
Anti-evolution bills
Anti-evolution bills spread. In the years following the Scopes trial, some 35 new anti-evolution bills are proposed in 20 states, and three states pass laws. By the 1930s, many areas in which fundamentalists hold political sway have passed some form of restriction on teaching evolution. -
Neo Darwinism
Neo-Darwinism adds new facts to Darwin's theory. By the early 1940s, the science of genetics has offered profound new insights into evolution. Scientists now understand that random genetic mutuationscan cause changes in the traits of organisms, and that such inherited changes are then spread throughout a population by the mechanism Darwin called natural selection. -
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. -
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 Pios 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. -
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. -
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. -
Human 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. -
Supreme Court on 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. -
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. -
Textbook Disclaimer
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. -
Pop 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
