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birth of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin is born at The Mount, Shrewsbury, the fifth child of Robert Waring Darwin, physician, and Susannah Wedgwood. -
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academics
Darwin attends Shrewsbury School as a boarder which he despises and described as "narrow and classical". -
Academic Failure
Darwin is removed from school, being deemed unsuccessful, and spends the summer accompanying his father on his doctor's rounds. That autumn, he is sent to Edinburgh University, with his brother Erasmus, to study medicine. -
Darwin joins the Plinian Society in Edinburgh.
It is around this time that Darwin meets his most influential mentor at Edinburgh, Robert Grant. -
Academics
Abhorred by medicine, Darwin leaves Edinburgh without taking a degree. Darwin's father, anxious that he does not become idle, insists that Darwin take up clerical studies in Cambridge. -
Academics
After spending some time brushing up on his forgotten Greek, Darwin enters Christ's College, Cambridge. -
Academics
Darwin sits his BA exam, and is astonished to be ranked 10th out of 178 candidates. -
Adventures
Darwin finally sets sail on the Beagle. -
Networking
Darwin meets the geologist Lyell for the first time. -
Education
Darwin reads his first scientific paper "Observations...on the coast of Chile" at the Geological Society in London. -
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Positional Power
Darwin is elected to the Athenaeum and then to the Royal Society and then to the Council of the Royal Geographical Society. -
Love
Darwin marries Emma Wedgwood, his first cousin. Their first child, William Erasmus, is born on December 27th. -
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Charles Darwin the Author
Structure and distribution of Coral Reefs is published,
Darwin writes a 35 page sketch of evolutionary theory. Darwin write Volcanic Islands. Buoyed by Joseph Dalton Hooker’s response to his earlier drafts of evolutionary theory, Darwin finishes a 231 page manuscript. Robert Chambers publishes Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, a popularisation of evolution theory. Darwin finishes his last book describing the Beagle voyages: Geological Observations on South America. -
Death of daughter
Darwin's eldest daughter Anne dies. -
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Darwins accomplishment.
The Royal Society award Darwin their Royal Medal for his work on barnacles. Darwin is elected to the Royal Society's Philosophical Club, and to the Linnean Society. -
Darwin's experimentation
Darwin conducts experiments to prove that seeds, plants and animals could reach oceanic islands, where they might produce new species in geographic isolation. -
Festivities
April 1856
Darwin invites Huxley and other naturalists to a weekend party, where they discuss his ideas on the origin of species. After the meeting, he begins writing for publication, encouraged by Lyell, who feared that others might publish the same work before him. -
Research Paper
After correspondence with Wallace (who had come up with a semmingly identical theory), and advised by Hooker and Lyell, extracts from Darwin's work and a paper by Wallace are presented at the Linnean Society. This work is later published as "On the tendency of species to form varieties" in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Zoology). Events moved so fast, that Wallace is not notified of the joint presentation until afterwards, but responds courteously. -
Charles Darwin the author.
Darwin now moves quickly. He writes a book, stripped of academic references and aimed at the reading public, called On the Origin of Species. The 1250 print run of 1859 is oversubscribed, and Darwin starts corrections for a second edition. The book’s cause is championed by Huxley, who is confrontational, and somewhat polarised the debate. Darwin backs him nonetheless, excusing himself from combat because of illness. -
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Darwins accomplishment
Darwin is awarded the Copley medal of the Royal Society (after being nominated three years running). This is the source of much debate; the Origin of Species was omitted from the award. Darwinism begins to dominate the views of the British Association, as Darwin’s chief scientific supporters, Hooker and Huxley, are presidents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0B6os-6uuc -
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Charles Darwin the author
The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication is published. The Descent of Man is published, and the Origin is extensively re-written to answer arguments by Mivart. This sixth and last edition uses the word 'evolution' for the first time. Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals completes great cycle of evolutionary writings. -
Charles Darwins accomplishment
Cambridge bestows Darwin with an honorary doctorate of law. -
Death of Charles Darwin
After a heart attack on Christmas, followed by seizures, Charles Darwin dies, in great suffering, at Down House. He is later buried in Westminster Abbey.