Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, in Shrewsbury, England.¹⁾

He was the fifth of six children in his family.²⁾

Darwin's father was a successful doctor, and his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was a well-known physician, poet, and natural philosopher.³⁾

As a young boy, Darwin showed an early interest in nature and collecting specimens.⁴⁾

He initially studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh but later switched to divinity at Christ's College, Cambridge.⁵⁾

During his time at Cambridge, Darwin became friends with John Stevens Henslow, a botanist who would later be influential in Darwin's career.⁶⁾

Henslow recommended Darwin for a position as a naturalist on the HMS Beagle, a voyage that would become the basis for his groundbreaking work.⁷⁾

Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle lasted from 1831 to 1836 and took him to places like South America, the Galápagos Islands, and Australia.⁸⁾

The observations Darwin made during his voyage led him to develop his theory of evolution by natural selection.⁹⁾

Darwin's most famous work, “On the Origin of Species,” was published in 1859, outlining his theory of evolution.¹⁰⁾

He married his cousin Emma Wedgwood in 1839, and they had ten children together.¹¹⁾

Darwin's health suffered greatly throughout his life, and he often experienced various physical and mental ailments.¹²⁾

He suffered from an undiagnosed illness that caused symptoms like fatigue, headaches, and stomach problems, which modern scholars speculate might have been related to Chagas disease.¹³⁾

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection states that species change over time in response to their environment, with favorable traits becoming more common in populations over generations.¹⁴⁾

His theory challenged the prevailing belief in a fixed and unchanging world, which was rooted in religious and scientific traditions.¹⁵⁾