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Using biblical chronology, James Ussher of Ireland calculates that the creation of Heaven and Earth took place in 4004 B.C.
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New instruments of magnification, including elegantly crafted microscopes, Jesuit-trained physician Francesco Redi, for instance, shows why fly maggots often crop up in putrefied meat.
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Linnaeus, attempts to classify all life on Earth. His system divides life into kingdoms, classes, orders, genera, and species. It is a landmark in science that will greatly influence future naturalists, including Charles Darwin.
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Georges Louis writes that living creatures evolve according to natural laws. Buffon even dares suggest that humans and apes are related, and that all life has descended from a single ancestor.
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Charles Darwin's grandfather, a flamboyant physician. Erasmus Darwin never works out a coherent and convincing theory for how evolution works.
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Archdeacon William Paley's Natural Theology holds that not only God's existence but also his attributes are manifest in the intricate forms of nature.
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French naturalist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck proposes that living things evolve to become more complex through time. Lamarck thinks that wading birds, for instance, evolved long legs as they stretched to keep high and dry
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Charles Darwin's birth comes at a time of social conservatism in Britain. In the early 19th century there is no such thing as a professional scientist; Darwin, a passionate hunter and beetle collector, plans to quietly pursue his interest in nature.
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Cuvier sees catastrophes in fossil record.But Cuvier rails against the notion that past life evolved into present forms. He argues that modern creatures are far too complex to have evolved naturally.
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Lyell describes immense age of Earth. Further this idea by arguing that slow-moving, gradual processes explain Earth's geology. Lyell becomes a mentor himself to Charles Darwin.
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When Darwin begins his voyage around the world, he intends to spend his life in the clergy. But five years later, at the end of what was to be a two-year trip, he is a changed man. He is now committed to a life discovering nature's laws.
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The unearthing of a fossil skull in Germany's Neander Valley fuels a debate over whether all humans are the direct descendants of Adam and Eve.
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Wallace has a theory of how species might evolve. Darwin is shocked; Wallace has struck upon the theory of natural selection that Darwin has been researching for 20 years.
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It offers a wealth of evidence and proposes a coherent theory for evolution: Just as domestic animals evolve through breeding, or artificial selection.
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At a meeting of Britain's leading scientists, critics attack Darwin's theory for bestializing humankind.
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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.
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Darwin now unabashedly takes on human evolution. His new book also stresses the importance of sexual selection.
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Horse fossils reveal a story of evolution.Looking for a dramatic example to capture the public's imagination, he visits fossil hunter Othniel Charles Marsh at Yale. Marsh has recently discovered stunning fossils of ancient horses.
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Darwin buried in Westminster Abbey. Darwin's body is laid to rest in a place of honor.Is attended by Britain's leading politicians, scientists, and clergy. The Anglican Church has accepted evolution, and many people reconcile Darwin's view of life on Earth with their religious faiths.
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Radioactivity points to an ancient Earth. The discovery of radioactivity by physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel leads to stunning calculations of Earth's age.
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Darwin Theory is Proved True. The find at first bolsters the argument for human evolution.
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The fossils are found along with the skull of an ancient baboon that has a mysterious opening. Dart speculates that the clever man-like apekilled the baboon and extracted its brain for food.
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Textbooks censored. Publishers remove references to evolution from biology textbooks, including George William Hunter's.
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Anti-evolution bills spread. Many areas in which fundamentalists hold political sway have passed some form of restriction on teaching evolution. Some involve administrative rulings; others are school board resolutions.
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Neo-Darwinism adds new facts to Darwin's theory. Scientists now understand that random genetic mutations can 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.
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The teaching of evolution hits a low point.
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Teaching religion in public schools was no longer accepted.
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Pope Pius Xll leads the way for catholics to accept even human evolution by stressing distinction between body and soul.
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A young graduate student named Stanley Miller produces amino acids. This experiment, and others, indicate that the first life on Earth may have arisen from natural process.
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The structure of DNA and how does it work is discovered.
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Breakthroughs in genetics allow researchers to see the similarities in the DNA blueprints for humans and apes.
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Lawsuits begin challenging anti-evolutionist legislation in South.
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The DNA codes offer new evidence about evolution.
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School boards create 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’’.
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Pope John Paul ll opened the door for Catholic acceptance of evolution.
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The Fordham Foundation laments that the U.S. states do ‘‘a weak-to-reprehensible job handling evolution in their science standards’’
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With the human genome complete, scientists see more about the human species and their relationship with other life on Earth.
