Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, with its emphasis on natural selection, was the first to win wide approval from the scientific community.

Naturalist 1809-1882

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. He died at the age of seventy-three on April 19, 1882. Darwin revolutionized biology with his theory of evolution by natural selection. Although others contributed to the theory of evolution, Darwin was the first to win wide approval from the world's experts in biology.

Darwin was the son of a physician and the grandson of the physician and naturalist Erasmus Darwin. In the 1790s Erasmus Darwin proposed a theory of evolution. Darwin studied medicine at Edinburgh University and religion at Cambridge University. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cambridge in 1831. There, his interest in biology was encouraged by his friendship with John Stevens Henslow, who studied plants. Henslow recommended Darwin as naturalist for...