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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck died. Lamark advocated a theory of evolution which included the idea that traits could be acquired and then passed along to offspring.
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Charles Darwin graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge with a B.A. degree.
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Charles Darwin had his first interview with Fitzroy, Captain of the HMS Beagle, in hopes of becoming the ship's naturalist. Fitzroy very nearly rejected Darwin because of the shape of his nose.
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Employed as ship's naturalist, Charles Darwin left England aboard The Beagle.
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Ernst Haeckel was born in Potsdam, Germany. Haeckel was an influential zoologist whose work on evolution served to inspire some of the racist theories of the Nazis.
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The HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, finally reaches Galapagos Islands.
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Charles Darwin received a monograph from Alfred Russel Wallace which essentially summarized Darwin's own theories on evolution, thus inspiring him to publish his work sooner than he planned.
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Charles Darwin began writing his seminal book, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
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Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was first published. All 1,250 copies of the first printing were sold out on the very first day.
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Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection went into its second edition, 3,000 copies.
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Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce of the Church of England engaged in their famous debate on Darwin's theory of evolution.
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Charles Darwin published a book about his grandfather, entitled Life of Erasmus Darwin.
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John T. Scopes was born. Scopes became famous in a trial which challenged Tennessee's law against teaching evolution.
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Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signed into law a prohibition against the teaching of evolution in public schools. Later that year John Scopes would violate the law, leading to the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial.
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The infamous Scopes Monkey Trial began in Dayton, Tennessee.