Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 at The Mount, the family home in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, built by his father Robert Darwin.

Robert Darwin had Charles baptised in November 1809 at St Chad's Church in Shrewsbury, despite being a freethinker.

Graba arrived in Tórshavn on 18 April 1828 after a delayed voyage from Copenhagen, beginning his study of Faroese bird life.

Graba conducted excursions to multiple islands, recording detailed bird data and anecdotes about the local population.

Graba's notes from the 1828 trip were published in Hamburg in 1830 as a diary, later translated into Faroese.

Darwin embarked from Plymouth on 27 December 1831, starting the second voyage of HMS Beagle after delays in ship preparations.

While at Bahia, Brazil, in March 1832, Darwin was horrified at tales of the treatment of slaves, the earliest sourced South American event of the voyage.

HMS Beagle reached the Galápagos Islands on 15 September 1835, following its survey work along the west coast of South America.

HMS Beagle anchored at Falmouth, Cornwall, on 2 October 1836, marking the end of the survey expedition.

HMS Beagle reached Sydney on 12 January 1836. Darwin compared the initial landscape to Patagonia but admired the city's bustling nature.

John Churchill published the first edition anonymously in London in October 1844, following Chambers' dictation in St Andrews.

Charles Darwin read the book in November 1844, noting it drew on evidence he had gathered and introduced questions to be dealt with.

Reading Vestiges in 1845 first inclined Alfred Russel Wallace to believe that the transmutation of species occurred.

Robert Chambers became a prominent suspect as early as spring 1845, with direct accusations arising later.

Prince Albert read Vestiges aloud to Queen Victoria in 1845, indicating its reach into high society.

Adam Sedgwick added a lengthy preface attacking Vestiges and theories of development to the 5th edition of his Discourse in 1850.

Bingley Hall was built in 1850 in Birmingham using surplus steel columns from Euston railway station, costing £6,000.

The second annual cattle and poultry shows were held in the new Bingley Hall in 1850, following the first in a temporary hall.

Anne Elizabeth Darwin died on 23 April 1851; her father had sought the water cure for her at Great Malvern, and her death reawakened his hereditary-illness fears.

Horace Darwin was born three weeks after Anne's death, partially softening the family's grief.

Darwin and Wallace's papers were read on 1 July 1858, marking the first public announcement of natural selection.

The papers were published in August 1858, constituting the first announcement of the Darwin–Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection.

Darwin's book was published in London on 24 November 1859 by John Murray, priced at fifteen shillings with a first printing of 1,250 copies.