Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12th February 1809 in Shrewsbury England. Darwin shares his
birthday with U. S. President Abraham Lincoln. Both were crusaders against slavery: Darwin
disliked slavery and Lincoln abolished it. Darwin was a born naturalist and showed keen
interest in nature from the very beginning. A breakthrough came when he was selected as a
naturalist on the H. M. S. Beagle ship. His ?ve year voyage on the Beagle started in 1931 and
was completed in 1936. This was followed by publication of his research ?ndings that challenged
creationist views of the church. Darwin conducted a study of fossils and geological records and
concluded rightly that all life forms emerged over millions of years of evolution through the
force of natural selection. In 1959 Darwin published his work on evolution in a book titled On
the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races. The
book was received as a scienti?c bomb shell and has since changed the human understanding of
life forever. Today Darwin's ideas on evolution provide foundation to modern biology. Darwin
died of a heart attack on the 19th April 1882 and was buried in Westminster Abbey near the
grave of Sir Isaac Newton. The scienti?c community is celebrating Darwin's bicentenary
worldwide in honor of his ingenuity scienti?c thought conviction and courage.
