Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 to 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The scientific community and much of the general public came to accept evolution as a fact in his lifetime, but it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.
Amidst life’s ever-changing trajectories, Charles Darwin always has the recognition as the most pivotal genius of biology. Science didn’t stop with Darwin, but many ideas that he pioneered have stood the test of time. His contributions relating to Natural Selection, population-based thinking, sexual selection, biogeography, etc., have changed how we view the world more than anything previously in history
Edited by his son, Francis Darwin, Charles Darwin's autobiography begins with these words: My father's autobiographical recollections, given in the present chapter, were written for his children,—and written without any thought that they would ever be published. To many this may seem an impossibility; but those who knew my father will understand how it was not only possible, but natural. The autobiography bears the heading, 'Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character,' and end with the following note:—"Aug. 3, 1876. This sketch of my life was begun about May 28th at Hopedene (Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood's house in Surrey.), and since then I have written for nearly an hour on most afternoons."
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