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Period: to
Charles Darwin
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Passes his BA examinations
Without honours and remains at Cambridge for a further two terms to fulfill residence requirement. Spends much time with Henslow, and in August accompanies Adam Sedgwick, Professor of Geology, on his annual field trip to Wales. -
Begins voyage
Meets Captain Robert FitzRoy (1805-65) and makes preparations for the voyage. Begins Beagle diary. After two false starts, the ship leaves Plymouth on 27 December. -
Makes fist landing
Darwin makes his first landing on a tropical shore at St Jago, Cape Verde Islands. Field notebooks begin to be used. -
Visits cape of good hope
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Leaves cape of good hope
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Period: to
Fitzwilliam Street
lives in lodgings in Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge. -
Marries Emma Wedgwood
Publishes Journal of Researches, later known as Voyage of the Beagle. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. First child, a son William, is born. He and Emma eventually have ten children, seven of whom reach adulthood. Disseminates Questions about the breeding of animals. -
Publishes paper
Publishes paper On the formation of mould. The book on this subject would only be published in 1881. -
Makes a short geological excursion in Wales.
Settles with his wife and young family in Down House, in the village of Downe in Kent. Publishes The structure and distribution of coral reefs. On a visit to his wife’s family home, Maer in Staffordshire, makes a brief pencil sketch of his theory of ‘descent with modification'. -
Father dies
his father Robert Waring Darwin dies. Goes to Shrewsbury for the funeral but arrives too late to attend. -
Eldest daughter dies
March takes oldest daughter Annie to Malvern where she dies of fever on 23 March, aged ten. In July the family visits the Great Exhibition in London’s Hyde Park. Publishes the first of two volumes on barnacles, A Monograph on the sub-class Cirripedia, and the first of two volumes on fossil barnacles, A Monograph on the fossil Lepadidae. -
Publishes concluding volumes on barnacles
A Monograph on the sub-class Cirripedia, and A Monograph on the fossil Balanidae and Verrucidae. Immediately begins full-time work on species. -
Publishes Orogin of Species
On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life is published in London by John Murray. On publication day Darwin is taking the water cure in Ilkley, Yorkshire. -
Earns an award
Awarded the Copley medal of the Royal Society of London, its highest scientific honour. -
Publishes The Power of Movement in Plants
Assisted by Francis Darwin.
