Charles Darwin Facts

Charles Darwin, one of the most important figures in the history of science, was born on February 12th 1809 (he shares a birthday with 16th US President, Abraham Lincoln) in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. He was the grandson (on his father's side of the family) of Erasmus Darwin, a famous natural philosopher, and also of Josiah Wedgwood (on his mother's side of the same), who is of course known for the industrialization of the production of pottery.

Darwin was spent the year of 1825 as an an apprentice doctor with his father, and was subsequently sent to the Edinburgh University to study medicine. Darwin however neglected his medical studies, disliking surgery and finding lectures to be boring - instead his time at Edinburgh awakened an interested in him in taxonomy (the classification of living things) and marine environments. In 1828, Darwin was sent to Cambridge with the intention of studying for a Bachelor of Arts with the long term aim of becoming an Anglican parson - Darwin however found himself however more interested in beetle collecting, botany, geology and natural philosophy.

Perhaps the key event of Darwin's life was a five year voyage around the world on the ship HMS Beagle. This voyage took place between 1831 and 1836, and while the ship's primary mission was to survey and chart coasts, Darwin was able to study the geology of areas visited, and amass a vast collection of natural history specimens.