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Birth
Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20081206010149/http://darwin.baruch.cuny.edu/biography/shrewsbury/mount/ -
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Charles Robert Darwin
A great video that explains what I'm describing in this timeline in a short and concise way is the BBC News video titled "Theory of Evolution: How did Darwin come up with it?" -
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HMS Beagle
Before we begin understanding Darwin’s theory of natural selection (later referred to as Darwin’s theory of evolution) we must first go to where this all started. The five-year journey on the HMS Beagle (which was originally supposed to be a two-year journey) intended to be a charting expedition of the South American Coastline.
Source: Darwin: The Story of the Man and His Theories of Evolution by author Dr. John van Wyhe -
HMS Beagle - Santiago
The ships first stop was in Santiago in Cape Verde, on these volcanic islands is where Darwin discovered a white layer of what was resembled that of crushed seashells on the cliffs. He hypothesized that this layer was once in the sea covered in lava and than over time lifted to present day heights.
Source: http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A342&pageseq=1 -
HMS Beagle - Galápagos Islands
Darwin's stop in the Galápagos is where he began observing similarities in the species there but very key differences. Differences in the tortoises that lived on these islands, include a longer neck and more shallow shell for the more dry area vs a tortoise who had a shorter neck and much wider shell. These differences in this case was based on climate of these particular area.
Source: http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1925&viewtype=text&pageseq=1 -
HMS Beagle - Journey's end
Darwin's journey with the HMS Beagle ends as he returns to England with all his observations being recorded in the journal that he kept. -
Natural Selection Theory
By November Darwin made the correlation that similar to how humanity selectively breeds animals, nature selects traits based on the survive-ability of animals but at a much slower rate, now known as natural selection.
Source: http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=CUL-DAR124.-&pageseq=61 -
Theory Acceptance
By 1870 Darwin's theory was now more widely accepted, by the broader scientific community. As described in this weeks material, this would constitute a paradigm shift, even though still not fully accepted by all, the evidence continues to mount in favor of this theory to this day, whether that's due to this theory now being considered normal science as Kuhn stated or due to the theory having actual weight in terms of truth. Only time will tell.
Source: http://darwin-online.org.uk/darwin.html -
Death
Charles Robert Darwin died in Kent, England at the age of 73. He died of heart failure.
Source: https://florida.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5744/florida/9780813032313.001.0001/upso-9780813032313-chapter-14
