Darwin Day
Next: February 12, 2027
Happy birthday to a curious mind.
The story
Where it comes from
Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809, and Darwin Day turns his birthday into a celebration of science. The organised movement began with three enthusiasts: Dr Robert Stephens, who started an annual celebration with the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley in 1995; Professor Massimo Pigliucci, who held Darwin Day events at the University of Tennessee from 1997; and Amanda Chesworth, who helped incorporate the Darwin Day Program in 2000. Since 2022 its website has been run by the National Center for Science Education.
How it's celebrated
Museums, universities, schools and science groups hold talks and events around his birthday. The idea is to celebrate science and curiosity rather than any single person, so a walk in the park looking closely at beetles, leaves or birds is entirely in the spirit of the day.
Did you know
- In February 1855, while working in Sarawak on Borneo, Alfred Russel Wallace wrote his 'Sarawak Law' paper, his first formal statement on how species come into being.
- Darwin received Wallace's essay on natural selection, sent from the island of Ternate, on 18 June 1858, and both men's work was read at the Linnean Society in London on 1 July 1858.
- Darwin was too ill to attend the famous Oxford evolution debate between Thomas Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce on 30 June 1860.
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