Evolution timeline

Charles Darwin is Born

Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England on 12 February 1809 at his family home, the Mount. He was the fifth of six... Read more

Charles Darwin attends Anglican Shrewsbury School

Darwin joined his brother, Erasmus, at Shrewsbury Grammar School, run by the Revd. Samuel Butler. The focus of study was Greek and Roman reading... Read more

Charles Darwin Attends The University of Cambridge

His father was unhappy that his younger son would not become a physician and "was very properly vehement against my turning an idle sporting man,... Read more

Charles Darwin First Speech to the Geological Society of London

With Lyell's enthusiastic backing, Darwin read his first paper to the Geological Society of London on 4 January 1837, arguing that the South... Read more

Charles Darwin First Goes Public on Views of Evolution

Darwin’s book was half way when, on 18 June 1858, he received a paper from Wallace describing natural selection. Shocked that he had been... Read more

Charles Darwin Publishes 'On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties'

This famous paper originally appeared in the Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, but has been printed in books, in part or in whole,... Read more

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species is Published

On the Origin of Species proved unexpectedly popular, with the entire stock of 1,250 copies oversubscribed when it went on sale to booksellers on... Read more

Charles Darwin's "The Descent of Man" was Published

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex is a book on evolutionary theory by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in... Read more

Charles Darwin Dies

He died at Down House on 19 April 1882. He had expected to be buried in St Mary’s churchyard at Downe, but at the request of Darwin’s colleagues,... Read more

John Scopes is Arrested

On May 5, 1925, high school science teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in one of Tennessee's public schools. Scopes had agreed... Read more

John Scopes Found Guilty for Teaching Evolution

John Scopes was an activist and a teacher. In what was called the “Scopes Monkey Trial”, John was charged on May 5th, 1925 of teaching evolution in... Read more

"Ardi" Fossil is described, changing theories on human evolution

No modern ape is a realistic proxy for characterizing early hominid evolution. Read more