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TODAY IN LITERARY HISTORY
Birthday of Charles Darwin, naturalist and influential theorist of evolution 
---- Born 1809 -----

 
 
Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species.

By the 1870s, the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favored competing explanations and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

BUT DID YOU KNOW....

Darwin was an inquisitive man. Sure he was curious about nature and all that science stuff, but he's also a guy. So when he saw strange animals, he often wondered what they would taste like. The difference between Darwin and the rest of us is that he actually ate 'em!

THEN HOW ABOUT THIS….. 

He composed a pro/con list to decide on whether to marry.

OR THAT He was a 'Gamer' ….

Darwin loved to play Backgammon, every night between 8 and 8:30 PM, Darwin would play 2 games of backgammon with his wife Emma. He even kept score of every game he played for years!

Or perhaps he was the inspiration for the TV Character Doc Martin? ….Darwin attended Edinburgh University in hopes of becoming a physician like his father, but soon abandoned the idea because he couldn't stand the sight of blood. So, he decided to study divinity instead and become a rural cleric, which would fit his hobby of being a naturalist just fine.

WELL THEN DID YOU KNOW THAT He didn’t coin the phrase “survival of the fittest.”


OR THAT He waited more than 20 years to publish his groundbreaking theory on evolution.

Darwin’s five-year voyage around the world on HMS Beagle, which ended in 1836, provided him with invaluable research that contributed to the development of his theory of evolution and natural selection. Concerned, however, about the public and ecclesiastical acceptance of his deeply radical idea, he did not present his theory of evolution until 1858 when he made a joint announcement with British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who was about to go public with a similar concept to Darwin’s.

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