Charles Darwin: Quick Facts

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Oct. 26, 2026

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Also Known As	Charles Robert Darwin
Born	February 12, 1809 • Shrewsbury • England
Died	April 19, 1882 (aged 73) • England
Awards And Honors	Copley Medal (1864)
Notable Works	“On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects” • “Origin of Species” • “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex” • “The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species” • “The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom” • “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” • “The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms” • “The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication”
Notable Family Members	son Sir George Darwin
Subjects Of Study	barnacle • earthworm • plant • Darwinism • coral reef • evolution • fertilization • fossil • fossil record • natural selection • plant movement • population • taxonomy • human being

Darwin's questioning of the practice of human inbreeding was taboo at least partially because of its implicit criticism of the royal family, since Queen Victoria had married her cousin.
Darwin had to go public with his idea of natural selection so that Alfred Wallace would not receive all of the credit for the theory, both of them having reached it independently.
Some argue that Darwin's frequent illnesses may have been largely psychosomatic since his symptoms often worsened with stress.
Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was a doctor whose talk of transmutation - the word for, essentially, evolution - led to Erasmus being discredited and shamed, giving Charles a fear of public censure and leaving him slow to publish his works.