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1809
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February 12
Charles Darwin is born to Susannah Wedgwood and Robert Waring Darwin, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
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1825
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Enrolls (briefly) in Edinburgh University to study medicine
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1828
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Arrives at Christ's College, Cambridge, intending to become a parson
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1830
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Receives Bachelor of Arts degree, Cambridge University
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1831
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Receives Master of Arts degree, Cambridge University
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1831
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December 27
Departs on the HMS Beagle from Plymouth, England; joins voyage as gentleman companion to Captain Robert FitzRoy with the understanding that he will collect natural history specimens
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1836
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October 2
After nearly five years at sea, returns to England aboard the Beagle
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1837
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July
First formulates the tree of life
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1838
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September
First formulates the theory of natural selection
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1839
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January 29
Marries his cousin Emma Wedgwood
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1839
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June
Publishes his first book, Journal of Researches (also known as The Voyage of the Beagle)
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1839
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December 27
Becomes a father when Emma Darwin gives birth to William, the Darwins' first child (of 10). Several of the Darwin children will later help their father carry out his experiments. Some of Darwin's original notes are even "decorated" with his children's doodles.
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1842
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September 17
Moves with his family from London to Down House, Kent, England. Darwin will spend the next 40 years there writing, conducting experiments, and taking daily strolls through the woods and meadows surrounding his home.
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1858
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July 1
With naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, makes the first public statements of the theory of evolution by natural selection in papers presented in absentia at the Linnean Society of London
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1859
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November
Publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. With the sixth edition, in 1872, the title is shortened to The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. In the book Darwin explains his theory of evolution by natural selection.
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1860
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Spring
From this period to the end of his life, Darwin focuses on his own hands-on research through botanical experiments and observations of living plants in the gardens, greenhouses, and neighboring fields, woods, and ponds around Down House.
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1882
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April 19
Darwin dies at Down House, age 73. Buried in Westminster Abbey
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