Charles robert darwin biography summary example
Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)
Who Was Charles Darwin?
Charles Robert Darwin was a British naturalist and biologist known for his theory of evolution and his understanding of the process of natural selection. In 1831, he embarked on a five-year voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle, during which time his studies of various plants and an led him to formulate his theories. In 1859, he published his landmark book, On the Origin of Species.
Early Life
Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, in the tiny merchant town of Shrewsbury, England. A child of wealth and privilege who loved to explore nature, Darwin was the second youngest of six kids.
Darwin came from a long line of scientists: His father, Dr. R.W. Darwin, was a medical doctor, and his grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, was a renowned botanist. Darwin’s mother, Susanna, died when he was only eight years old.
Education
In October 1825, at age 16, Darwin enrolled at University of Edinburgh along with his brother Erasmus. Two years later, he became a student at Christ's College in Cambridge.
His father hoped he would follow in his footsteps and become a medical doctor, but the sight of blood made Darwin queasy. His father suggested he study to become a parson instead, but Darwin was far more inclined to study natural history.
HMS Beagle
While Darwin was at Christ's College, botany professor John Stevens Henslow became his mentor. After Darwin graduated Christ's College with a bachelor of arts degree in 1831, Henslow recommended him for a naturalist’s position aboard the HMS Beagle.
The ship, commanded by Captain Robert FitzRoy, was to take a five-year survey trip around the world. The voyage would prove the opportunity of a lifetime for the budding young naturalist.
On December 27, 1831, the HMS Beagle launched its voyage around the world with Darwin aboard. Over the course of the trip, Darwin collected a variety of natural specimens, including birds, plants and fossils.
DOWNLOAD BIO
12 February 1809
Charles Darwin is born at The Mount, Shrewsbury, the fifth child of Robert Waring Darwin, physician, and Susannah Wedgwood.
1817
Darwin's mother dies; his 3 older sisters take on maternal responsibilities. Darwin starts at Unitarian day school.
1818-25
Darwin attends Shrewsbury School as a boarder. He hates the school, describing it as "narrow and classical".
1825
Darwin is removed from school, being deemed unsuccessful, and spends the summer accompanying his father on his doctor's rounds. That autumn, he is sent to Edinburgh University, with his brother Erasmus, to study medicine.
1826
Darwin joins the Plinian Society in Edinburgh. It is around this time that Darwin meets his most influential mentor at Edinburgh, Robert Grant.
1827
Abhorred by medicine, Darwin leaves Edinburgh without taking a degree. Darwin's father, anxious that he does not become idle, insists that Darwin take up clerical studies in Cambridge.
January 1828
After spending some time brushing up on his forgotten Greek, Darwin enters Christ's College, Cambridge.
January 1831
Darwin sits his BA exam, and is astonished to be ranked 10th out of 178 candidates.
27 December 1831
Darwin finally sets sail on the Beagle.
29 October 1836
Darwin meets the geologist Charles Lyell for the first time.
4 January 1837
Darwin reads his first scientific paper "Observations...on the coast of Chile" at the Geological Society in London.
May 1839
The Beagle journal is published under the title Journals and Remarks, volume three of Darwin's Narrative of the voyage.
May 1837
Darwin moves from Cambridge to 36, Great Marlborough Street, London.
March 1838
Darwin is elected to the Athenaeum...
1839
... and then to the Royal Society...
1840
... and then to the Council of the Royal Geographical Society.
Janua
Charles darwin death Charles Darwin
English naturalist and biologist (1809–1882)
For other people named Charles Darwin, see Charles Darwin (disambiguation).
Charles Darwin
JP FRS FRGS FLS FZS
Darwin, c. 1854, when he was preparing On the Origin of Species
Born Charles Robert Darwin
(1809-02-12)12 February 1809Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Died 19 April 1882(1882-04-19) (aged 73) Down House, Down, Kent, England
Resting place Westminster Abbey Education Known for Natural selection Spouse Children 10, including William, Henrietta, George, Francis, Leonard and Horace Parents Family Darwin–Wedgwood Awards Writing career Notable works Scientific career Fields Institutions Geological Society of London Academic advisors Author abbrev. (botany) Darwin Author abbrev. (zoology) Darwin Charles Robert Darwin (DAR-win; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint presentation with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.
Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. His studies at the University of Cambridge's Christ's College
The man who struggled with his own ideas
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection made us rethink our place in the world. The idea that humans shared a common ancestor with apes was a challenge to the foundations of western civilisation.
Darwin kept silent for 20 years before going public and was only half joking when he described writing his book 'On the Origin of Species' as 'like confessing a murder'. This is the story of one man’s struggle with the most radical idea of all time.
12 Feb 1809
Born into a free-thinking family
Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, the fifth of six children of wealthy and well-connected parents.
The young Charles had a quietly Christian upbringing, but his family life was one of openness to new ideas. His grandfathers had both been important figures of the Enlightenment: Josiah Wedgewood, industrialist and anti-slavery campaigner, and Erasmus Darwin, a doctor whose book ‘Zoonomia’ had set out a radical and highly controversial idea - that one species could 'transmute' into another.
1825
New ideas in Edinburgh
Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Darwin secured a place at Edinburgh University to study medicine.
He did not make a good medic. This was long before anaesthetic, and Darwin found the brutal techniques of surgery too stomach-churning to handle. But there was an upside. Edinburgh was one of the best places in Britain to study science. It attracted free thinkers with radical opinions that would not have been tolerated in Oxford and Cambridge. Among other things, Darwin heard speakers talk about the latest theories of transmutation, as evolution was then known.
1827
Collecting beetles in Cambridge
Abandoning plans to be a doctor, Darwin now considered a career in the Church. Aged 18, he went to study Divinity at Cambridge.
Though he held fairly conventional beliefs in God, Dar