Charles Darwin

  On November 12, 1859, English scientist Charles Darwin published what is arguably the most influential, groundbreaking and controversial piece of scientific study the world has ever seen. In his work, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," Darwin proposed that all living things originated from common ancestors and developed over the course of time in a branching pattern to form complex and diverse species. He challenged both the predominant scientific theory that species were created independently and the prevailing religious explanation of intelligent design. Darwin declared that the survival of a species resulted from its successful traits or adaptations in a process known as "natural selection." In his conclusion, Darwin declared, "whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Today, while hi...

Charles Darwin , in full Charles Robert Darwin , (born February 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire , England—died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent), English naturalist whose scientific theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies. An affable country gentleman, Darwin at first shocked religious Victorian society by suggesting that animals and humans shared a common ancestry. However, his nonreligious biology appealed to the rising class of professional scientists, and by the time of his death evolutionary imagery had spread through all of science , literature, and politics. Darwin, himself an agnostic , was accorded the ultimate British accolade of burial in Westminster Abbey , London. Charles Darwin: HMS Beagle voyage Darwin formulated his bold theory in private in 1837–39, after returning from a voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle , but it was not until two decades later that he finally gave it full public expression in On the O...