Charles Darwin

Social Darwinism is a loose set of ideologies that emerged in the late 1800s in which Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was used to justify certain political, social, or economic views. Social Darwinists believe in “survival of the fittest”—the idea that ...read more

The Scopes Trial, also known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was the 1925 prosecution of science teacher John Scopes for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school, which a recent bill had made illegal. The trial featured two of the best-known orators of the era, William ...read more

In the 16th century, as many as 250,000 giant tortoises are believed to have roamed the Galápagos, an archipelago of 19 islands located in the Pacific Ocean some 620 miles (1,000 km) off the coast of Ecuador. When Spanish explorers stumbled on the islands in 1535, they actually ...read more

1. Darwin was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln. Both Darwin and Lincoln were born on February 12, 1809, but in much different settings. While America’s 16th president was born in a rude log cabin in the Kentucky wilderness, Darwin was born in a grand Georgian house on an ...read more

1. Charlemagne King of the Franks and emperor of the Romans in the late eight and early ninth centuries, Charlemagne had 20 children, some with wives and others with concubines. He insisted that they all receive a thorough education, including the girls. When one of his sons, ...read more

Slideshow: Unraveling History’s Medical Mysteries [slideshow exclude=”1746″]The man who popularized the term “survival of the fittest” was not terribly fit himself. Born into a freethinking family of English physicians in 1809, Charles Darwin suffered from a host of conditions ...read more