History of Evolution Timeline By Th3GinjaNinja1998 Period: Jan 1, 1600 to Jan 31, 2013 Darwin and History of Evolution Dec 18, 1607 1st N. American colony established at Jamestown Dec 18, 1609 Galileo proves Copernicus' heliocentric theory Dec 18, 1620 Pilgrims Land at Plymouth Dec 18, 1641 1641 Charles I of England beheaded Dec 18, 1660 A close-up view of "spontaneous generation" Dec 18, 1661 Louis XIV begins to centralize his power Dec 18, 1701 Jethro Tull invents seeding drill Dec 18, 1735 Linnaeus's Systema Naturae charts life Dec 18, 1749 Comte de Buffon proposes radical ideas Dec 18, 1776 The USA declared independance from Britain Dec 18, 1782 James Watt improves steam engine Dec 18, 1793 Louis XVI beheaded Dec 18, 1794 Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia heralds evolution Dec 18, 1799 Napoleon seizes power Dec 18, 1809 Darwin born in a conservative era Dec 18, 1809 Lamarck champions evolution Dec 18, 1814 Congress of Vienna decides Europe's future Dec 18, 1817 Cuvier sees catastrophes in fossil record Dec 18, 1830 Lyell describes immense age of Earth Dec 18, 1831 Beagle voyage transforms Darwin Dec 18, 1833 Factory Act (Britain) Dec 18, 1837 Darwin starts secret notebooks Dec 18, 1844 Anonymous pamphlet on evolution strikes fury Dec 18, 1848 Marx writes the Communist Manifesto Dec 18, 1856 Was Neanderthal Man a son of Adam? Dec 18, 1858 Wallace provokes Darwin to publish Dec 18, 1858 Flint tools spark debate over human evolution Dec 18, 1859 On the Origin of Species spurs a revolution Dec 18, 1860 Civil War Begins at Ft Sumter Dec 18, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation Dec 18, 1865 Civil War ends at Appomattox Courthouse Dec 18, 1865 Mendel's breakthroughs go unnoticed Dec 18, 1865 Evolution accepted Dec 18, 1870 Fabulous fossils on display Dec 18, 1871 Darwin explores The Descent of Man Dec 18, 1871 Unification of Germany and Italy Dec 18, 1876 Horse fossils reveal a story of evolution Dec 18, 1880 Social Darwinism stirs backlash Dec 18, 1896 Radioactivity points to an ancient Earth Dec 18, 1900 Mendel's laws of heredity rediscovered Dec 18, 1903 First flight accomplished Dec 18, 1912 Titanic Disaster Dec 18, 1912 Is Piltdown Man a "missing link"? Dec 18, 1914 Arch Duke Ferdinand Assassinated, start of World War Dec 18, 1917 March Revolution in Russia Dec 18, 1919 Treaty of Versailles Dec 18, 1925 Taungs "man-like ape" stirs fury Dec 18, 1925 Scopes trial puts controversy on center stage Dec 18, 1929 U.S. Stock Market Collapse Dec 18, 1931 Scopes trial becomes Scopes myth Dec 18, 1939 World War 2 begins Dec 18, 1940 Neo-Darwinism adds new facts to Darwin's theory Dec 18, 1945 First atomic bomb used on Hiroshima Dec 18, 1945 DDT resistance is evidence of rapid evolution Dec 18, 1949 N.A.T.O. is Founded Dec 18, 1953 DNA puzzle solved Dec 18, 1953 Can origins of life be glimpsed in a lab? Dec 18, 1955 Inherit the Wind reinforces Scopes myth Dec 18, 1967 A new view of humans and apes Dec 18, 1969 First man on moon Dec 18, 1974 Lucy ignites debate over human origins Dec 18, 1975 Sociobiology explores origins of behavior Dec 18, 1990 DNA codes offer new evidence of evolution Dec 18, 1991 Collapse of communism, USSR - end of cold war Dec 18, 1999 The euro is established Dec 18, 2001 September 11 attacks Dec 18, 2001 Human genome reveals human evolution