By: Ashley Dreyer

 His full name is Charles Robert Darwin  Born on February 12 th, 1809  Born in Shrewsbury, England  Born into a wealthy and well-connected family  He was the 5 th child of Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood  Darwin died on April 19 th, 1882  He is buried in Westminster Abbey

 His maternal grandfather was China manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood  His paternal grandfather was Erasmus Darwin  Erasmus was a leading intellectual of 18 th century England JosiahErasmus

 He was a quiet, solitary child  Charles’s mother died when her was only 8  Robert (Charles’s dad) started dedicating more of his time to his medical practice and left the house in control by his elder daughters Marianne and Caroline.

 Darwin initially planned to follow a medical career.  He planned to study at Edinburgh University but later switched to divinity at Cambridge.  In 1831, he joined a five year scientific expedition on the survey ship HMS Beagle.

 At the time Europeans believed that the world was created by God in seven days  Lyell's “Principles of Geology” suggested that the fossils found in rocks were actually evidence of animals that had lived many thousands or millions of years ago.

 Darwin agreed with Lyell’s theory because he saw a rich variety of animal life and the geological features during his voyage.  In the Galapagos Islands, 500 miles west of South America Darwin noticed that each island supported its own form of finch which were closely related but differed in important ways.

 When he returned to England in 1836 he tried to solve the riddle of his observations and piece together the puzzle of how species evolve  He was influenced by the ideas of Malthus

 Darwin proposed a theory of evolution occurring in nature  The animals or plants that best suit their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce  They passed their characteristics that helped them survive onto their offspring  Overtime the species gradually change

 After working on his theory for 20 years Darwin learned that Alfred Russel Wallace had similar ideas  In 1858 they made a joint announcement of their discovery

 In 1859 Darwin published “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”

 The logical extension or his theory was that homo sapiens was just another form of animal  He made it seem possible that even people might have evolved, quite possibly from apes  It destroyed the prevailing orthodoxy on how the world was created

 Darwin was attacked, particularly by the Church  His ideas, however, soon gained currency and became the new orthodoxy

 Charles Darwin faced a hard childhood. His mother died when he was 8 and his father was rarely around. He planned to study medicine but instead switched to divinity at Cambridge. At the time the time everyone believed the world was made by God in seven days. He found evidence to help prove his theory of evolution. 20 years of working on his theory later he published a book on his evolution theory. He faced many attacks and controversy, but he held on to what he believed in. In the end his book and theory were very successful.