Origin of Species Anniversary
Next: November 24, 2026
Endless forms most beautiful.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in London on 24 November 1859. Published by John Murray, the book set out the theory of evolution by natural selection, drawing on more than twenty years of work since 1837, soon after Darwin returned from his voyage on HMS Beagle. Darwin Online, the scholarly archive of his writings, calls it one of the most influential books ever written. Only 1,250 copies of the first edition were printed.
How it's celebrated
There is no organised observance on the anniversary; the bigger celebration is Darwin Day, on his birthday, 12 February. Readers can open the book itself: Darwin Online publishes the complete first edition free, and Cambridge University Library holds much of the Darwin Archive. A walk through a natural history museum, or a reread of the book's famous closing paragraph, is a fitting way to mark it.
Did you know
- The famous story that the whole first edition sold out on publication day is not quite right: booksellers ordered more copies than existed at Murray's trade sale on 22 November, two days earlier.
- Alfred Russel Wallace wrote his first theoretical paper on species in Sarawak, Borneo, in 1855; the essay he sent Darwin from the Moluccas in 1858 led to the Origin being published the following year.
- The last word of the book is 'evolved'.
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