Charles Darwin
- Born: February 12th, 1809
- fifth out of six children
- Parents: wealthy society doctor and financier Robert and Susannah Darwin
- grandson of Erasmus Darwin on his father's side and Josiah Wedgwood on his mother's side
- At the age of eight - had a taste of natural history
- english naturalist/geologist
- was an apprentice doctor
- sailed on a 5 year voyage around the world on the hMS Beagle
- while traveling (one of the destinations being the galapagos islands) - put all evolution puzzle pieces together
- was puzzled by the diversity of life on the galapagos
- knew these islands were young volcanic islands
- observed 13 varieties of finches - all clearly related, yet different from the one variety found on the mainland
- voyage ended: 1936
- wasn't until 1859 that he published his theory "The origin of the species"
- contributed two main ideas: evolution (aKA Descent with Modification) and the mechanism of evolution (AKA natural selection)
- was diagnosed with "angina pectoris"
- Died: April 19th, 1882 at the age of 73
- concluding words: "I am not the least afraid of death - remember what a good wife you have been to me - tell all my children to remember how good they have been to me."