1809 CEBorn at the Mount, Shrewsbury
Born to Robert Darwin (a wealthy society doctor) and Susannah Wedgwood (of the pottery family). His grandfather Erasmus Darwin had already proposed an early theory of evolution.
1825 CESent to medical school in Edinburgh
Hates the lectures and the surgery (without anaesthetic). Spends his time studying marine biology along the Firth of Forth.
1828 CECambridge
Sent by his exasperated father to Cambridge to train as a country clergyman. Falls in with the botanist John Stevens Henslow.
1831 CESails on HMS Beagle
On Henslow's recommendation, the 22-year-old Darwin is offered a place as the captain's gentleman companion and unpaid naturalist on a five-year hydrographic survey to South America.
1835 CEGalápagos Islands
The Beagle spends five weeks in the Galápagos. Darwin notices that mockingbirds and tortoises differ between islands but doesn't yet grasp what he is seeing.
1836 CEReturns to England
The Beagle returns on 2 October after nearly five years away. Darwin is already a celebrated geologist on the basis of letters home read by Henslow.
1837 CEThe 'I think' tree of life
In Notebook B, sketches the first evolutionary tree above the words 'I think.' He has worked out, in principle, descent with modification — but says nothing publicly for twenty more years.
1839 CEMarries Emma Wedgwood
Marries his first cousin. They will have ten children, of whom three die in childhood. Settles into the life of a country gentleman-scientist.
1842 CEMoves to Down House, Kent
Buys Down House for the privacy he needs. Lives there for forty years, mostly an invalid, conducting experiments on barnacles, orchids, earthworms, and pigeons.
1858 CEWallace's letter forces his hand
Alfred Russel Wallace, working in Indonesia, writes to Darwin describing the same theory. Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker arrange a joint presentation at the Linnean Society on 1 July.
1859 CEOn the Origin of Species
Published on 24 November. The first run of 1,250 copies sells out the same day. The most important book in biology, and arguably in all of natural science.
1871 CEThe Descent of Man
Twelve years after the Origin, he finally publishes the book that says explicitly what every reader had been thinking: humans, too, are descended from earlier primates.
1882 CEDies at Down House
Dies on 19 April aged 73. Despite his quiet agnosticism, he is given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey and buried near Isaac Newton.
