Charles Darwin (1809 to 1882)

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Sep 21, 2001

In 1858, Darwin received a letter from a young man named Alfred Russel Wallace, who was doing field research in the Malay Archipelaogo. Wallace had published a paper on species evolution in 1855, and his theories on natural selection were very similar to Darwin's. On July 1st, 1858, their theories were presented jointly to the Linnaean Society of London.

In 1859, Darwin's magnum opus The Origin of Species, By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life was published. He went on to publish five later editions of the book in 1860, 1861, 1866, 1869 and 1872, in which he refined his hypotheses. Before his death in 1882 he would publish three other books on the transformation of species: The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868), Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). He also published several books about insects, worms, moulds, plants and the fertilization of orchids by insects.

Darwin died on April 19th, 1882, at age 73, and was buried in Westminster Abbey near Sir Isaac Newton.