Charles Darwin Timeline

After delays, the voyage began on 27 December 1831; it lasted almost five years. The voyage truly established Darwin as an eminent geologist.

Darwin experienced an earthquake in Chile in 1835 and saw signs that the land had just been raised, including mussel beds stranded above high tide. He also collected a barnacle colony there that inspired later research.

Image source: 1835 Concepción earthquake

On 2 October 1836, the Beagle anchored at Falmouth, Cornwall, bringing Darwin's five-year voyage around the world to an end.

Image source: Second voyage of HMS Beagle

While rewriting his Journal, Darwin took on editing and publishing the expert reports on his collections, and with Henslow's help obtained a Treasury grant of £1,000, equivalent to £97,000 in 2025, to sponsor this multi-volume work.

Image source: Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle

With Charles Lyell's enthusiastic backing, Darwin read his paper to the Geological Society of London on 4 January 1837, establishing his scientific reputation.

Image source: Geological Society of London

By mid-March 1837, barely six months after his return to England, Darwin was speculating in his Red Notebook on the possibility that 'one species does change into another' to explain the geographical distribution of living species such as rheas and extinct ones such as Macrauchenia.

As the Victorian era began, Darwin pressed on with writing his Journal, beginning to correct printer's proofs in August 1837. His Journal was printed and ready for publication by the end of February 1838, though FitzRoy's long-delayed Narrative was not published until May 1839.

Image source: The Voyage of the Beagle

Darwin suggested that soil phenomena might have been the work of earthworms, inspiring 'a new & important theory' on their role in soil formation, which he presented at the Geological Society on 1 November 1837.

Darwin included mankind in his speculations from the outset, and on seeing an orangutan in the zoo on 28 March 1838 noted its childlike behaviour.

On 28 September 1838, Darwin read Malthus on Population and its assertion about population increasing in a geometrical ratio. It struck him that favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones destroyed — leading him to devise his theory of natural selection in 1838.

Image source: Natural selection

Darwin's first scientific work, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, on his theory of atoll formation, was published in May 1842 after more than three years of work. He then wrote his first 'pencil sketch' of his theory of natural selection.

Image source: The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs

On 11 January 1844, Darwin mentioned his theorising to the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, writing with melodramatic humour 'it is like confessing a murder'. In 1847, Hooker provided calm critical feedback on Darwin's 'Essay'.

Image source: Joseph Dalton Hooker

Though Darwin saw no threat to his ideas, on 14 May 1856 he began writing a short paper. In mid-1857 he added a section heading, 'Theory applied to Races of Man', but did not add text on this topic. On 5 September 1857 he sent Asa Gray a detailed outline of his ideas.

Image source: On the Origin of Species

Darwin was writing up his theory when, on 18 June 1858, Wallace sent him an essay describing the same idea, prompting the immediate joint submission of both their theories to the Linnean Society of London, read on 1 July 1858.

Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in On the Origin of Species. The book proved unexpectedly popular, with the entire stock of 1,250 copies oversubscribed when it went on sale to booksellers on 22 November 1859.

Enquiries about insect pollination led in 1861 to novel studies of wild orchids, showing adaptation of their flowers to attract specific moths to each species and ensure cross-fertilisation. Fertilisation of Orchids (1862) gave his first detailed demonstration of the power of natural selection, making testable predictions including a moth with a wonderfully long proboscis, confirmed when explorers discovered Xanthopan in Madagascar in 1903.

Image source: Fertilisation of Orchids

Darwin's book The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) was the first part of his planned 'big book', and included his unsuccessful hypothesis of pangenesis attempting to explain heredity.

Image source: The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication

With The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex published in 1871, Darwin set out evidence that humans are animals, presented sexual selection to explain features like the peacock's plumage and human evolution, and first used the word 'evolution'.

Image source: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

Despite criticisms and reservations, Darwin proposed a prescient idea in an 1871 letter to Hooker in which he suggested the origin of life may have occurred in a 'warm little pond'.

Image source: Abiogenesis

Darwin's 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals was an early work of psychology discussing the evolution of human psychology, and one of the first books to feature printed photographs. He also added the word 'evolution' to the 6th edition of The Origin of Species that year.

Image source: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Darwin's final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms (1881), returned to his long-standing interest in earthworms and their role in soil formation.

Image source: The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms

On 24 January 1839, Darwin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), a major recognition of his scientific achievements.

Image source: Fellow of the Royal Society

Darwin's work on barnacles, along with his coral reefs book, won him the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1853 and made his reputation as a biologist. In 1854, he became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.

Image source: Royal Medal

The most famous confrontation over evolution took place at the public 1860 Oxford evolution debate during a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, where Bishop Samuel Wilberforce argued against Darwin's explanation and human descent from apes.

Image source: 1860 Oxford evolution debate

Later lobbying brought Darwin Britain's highest scientific honour, the Royal Society's Copley Medal, awarded on 3 November 1864.

Image source: Copley Medal

In 1877, Marsh delivered a very influential speech before the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, providing a demonstrative argument for evolution.

Image source: Othniel Charles Marsh

Diagnosed in 1882 with what was then called 'angina pectoris', Darwin died at Down House on 19 April 1882, aged 73.

Francis Galton, Darwin's half-cousin, whose 1865 argument about heredity intrigued Darwin, named the field of study 'eugenics' in 1883 after Darwin's death, and his theories were cited to promote eugenic policies.

Image source: Francis Galton

In 1908, the Linnean Society of London began awards of the Darwin–Wallace Medal, marking fifty years from the joint reading on 1 July 1858 of papers by Darwin and Wallace publishing their theory. Further awards followed in 1958 and 2008, and since 2010 they have been annual.

Image source: Darwin–Wallace Medal

The 'Lady Hope Story', published in 1915, claimed that Darwin had reverted to Christianity on his sickbed, though this contradicts his documented views late in life.

Image source: Elizabeth, Lady Hope

Darwin College, a postgraduate college at Cambridge University founded in 1964, is named after the Darwin family.

Image source: Darwin College, Cambridge