Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England, February 12,1809, 201 years ago, the son of a wealthy physician.
Across the Atlantic, Abraham Lincoln was born the same day in a log cabin in Kentucky.
Darwin was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, but, it became clear that he did not have the temperment to witness surgery without anesthetics. His father enrolled him at Christ’s College, Cambridge (1827) to study to become a country parson, but Darwin never became a clergyman.
Darwin had a long-abiding interest in natural history, and one of his early passions was beetle collecting, which was all the rage in Victorian England. As the son of a gentleman and someone with with science training, Darwin was invited to serve as a companion to the captain of the HMS Beagle . He was 22.
The 5-year voyage proved to be the turning point for Darwin, who returned to England with notebooks full of observations occupied his thoughts for the rest of his life.
No comments:
Post a Comment