Charles Darwin’s statue in the main hall of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London. (Image: Shutterstock)
Darwin Day aims to inspire people to follow their intellectual curiosities. It urges us to explore truth through scientific means
Darwin Day 2022: Charles Darwin changed the world through his theory of evolution. His seminal work, On the Origin of Species (1859), posited that we all evolved from a common ancestor. February 12 is celebrated as Darwin Day to highlight his work and to celebrate science. Below, we share the history of the event, its significance and quotes by Darwin.
Darwin Day: History
Born on February 12, 1809, in an English town called Shropshire, Charles Robert Darwin was drawn towards nature from a tender age. He went on voyages and documented the flora and fauna, fossils, of various places. This led him to write ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.’
Darwin passed away in 1882. On February 12, 1909, the 50th anniversary of the publication of ‘On the Origin of Species’ was celebrated at the American Museum of Natural History. From 1997, Professor Massimo Pigliucci of the City College of New York began to celebrate February 12 as Darwin Day. In 2015, US lawmaker Jim Hines introduced a resolution which led to February 12 being designated as Darwin Day.
Darwin Day: Significance
Darwin Day aims to inspire people to follow their intellectual curiosities. It urges us to explore truth through scientific means.
Quotes About Evolution by Darwin
- From ‘On the Origin of Species’ (1859), chapter 14
“From so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” - From ‘On the Origin of Species’ (1859), chapter 3
“I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.” - From ‘On the Origin of Species’ (1869 edition), chapter 3
“The expression often used by Mr Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate [than ‘Struggle for Existence’], and is sometimes equally convenient.” - From ‘On the Origin of Species’ (1859), chapter 3
“From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows.”
