Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England.

He is considered to be one of the greatest scientists who ever lived. His theory of evolution by selection is the foundation of modern biology.

Before becoming a scientist, Darwin first began to follow a career in medicine, but didn’t like it and therefore switched to study divinity at Cambridge on his father’s advice. Darwin’s primary interests, however, laid in natural history. He used a lot of his time to collect and identify beetles. His career as a natural scientist started with an invitation to join a five year long expedition to South America’s coasts with the survey ship “Beagle.” During that time he spotted a lot of unknown species and took notes. Many of the papers he wrote about his findings got published.

He came back to England in 1836 and married Emma Wedgewood three years later. They had ten children, but three of them died very young. Darwin got very ill shortly after his wedding because of insect bites he got in South America, but he still worked on his theory for years. Darwin then unexpectedly got a letter from Wallace who had a similar theory about selection of his own, and therefore some of Darwin’s writings were published together with Wallace’s paper in 1858. Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, appeared in 1859.

He died on April 19, 1882 in Downe, Kent, in England.

Link provided on the website:

Link